Stardock & Star Control Creators - Settled with Mead and Honey

ArsTechnica has the details on how the Stardock and Star Control creators settled their differences with mead and honey.

The settlement's details are public, and Ford & Reiche have a blog post on their site explaining things. In summary, though, the terms are simple and straightforward:

• All existing lawsuits between Stardock and Ford & Reiche are dismissed with prejudice (this simply means the suits cannot be re-litigated).
• All parties are responsible for their own attorney's fees.
• Stardock gets to use the Star Control name for its Star Control Origins game and can develop sequels and DLCs as it likes.
• Ford & Reiche get to continue to develop their own direct Ur-Quan Masters sequel (which was previously called Ghosts of the Precursors but will be renamed).
• The Star Control Origins universe (now known as "the Star Control franchise") will continue in a disconnected bubble from the Ur-Quan Masters/Ghosts of the Precursors universe (now known as "the Ur-Quan Masters franchise").
• Reiche will contribute some writing to the Origins universe in a volunteer role.
• All of the complicated arguments about who owns which copyrights and trademarks and who they bought them from and when and what's copyrightable and what's not are mooted. (Which is great because it means I don't have to re-summarize the mountain of IP arguments that both sides were making!)
• The original three Star Control games can continue to be sold on other storefronts, including Stardock's, and Stardock will split revenue from those games' sales with Ford & Reiche.
• No licensing money changed hands.
• Brad Wardell of Stardock must furnish Paul Reiche with a specific amount of honey from Wardell's apiary.
• In turn, Paul Reiche must furnish Brad Wardell with a specific amount of mead brewed from Wardell's bees' honey.

Wait… what?

Yeah, the last bit kind of threw me, too.

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More information.

I like the uniquely Star Control vibe of this settlement.

What happens if the honey sours ?

Well, it's a resolution….sort of. Oh, and the sour honey, go ahead and throw that out, you'll thank me later!

F&R are great guys. The games co-exist like they should have in the beginning(?). I guess someone likes Honey mead.

I am really looking forward to a true sequel to UM. Bring back Star Control!

Ur-Quan Masters forever!!!! Star Control®: Origins on Steam is junk. If you watch the Ur-Quan Masters 2 video, it becomes clear that those are the REAL developers with creative talent!!!

- Brad Wardell of Stardock must sleep with Paul Reiche's wife to relieve Paul of heavy burden.
- In turn, Paul Reiche must give ten full body soap massages to Brad Wardell's grandfather with a specific amount of mead brewed from Wardell's bees' honey.

Smells like patchouli to me.

The Great Boo is up.

Given the direction of the honey I think stardock lost this round….

Originally Posted by screeg
Smells like patchouli to me.

Good, this whole argumentation felt kind of off. I'll gladly play future games from both developers.

Mead and honey are not too far away from each other : The main ingredient of both is actually honey …

(Is this the background where the word "meadow" comes from ?)

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Mead and honey are not too far away from each other : The main ingredient of both is actually honey …

(Is this the background where the word "meadow" comes from ?)

Don't think so. En.wiktionary tracks "meadow" back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂met- (“to mow, reap”), while "mead" as the drink derives from from Proto-Indo-European *médʰu (“honey; honey wine”).

According to the same source, "mead" can also mean "meadow" in English, but those two instances of the word seems not to be releated.

pibbur who is no expert