NOLF2 is one of best and interesting FPS I played. I wish they remastered it.

So say someone decides to produce a remaster of NOLF. Does Activision have to produce this piece of paper once they sue to establish standing? If Activision's version of this piece of paper was chewed up by rats in the 90s, does their ownership stake vanish in a puff as well?

If the potential victory from a lawsuit is $20K and Activision estimates it will cost them $50K to find this piece of paper, is the company relatively safe from a lawsuit?

NOLF is actually source-available [0][1][2], and it has been since not that long after its original release.

There's also a community-driven project [3] keeping it playable on modern hardware - however, it hasn't seen any activity in several years.

If you haven't played or heard of NOLF before, I highly encourage checking it out. It's a fantastic title, even after all these years.

0: https://web.archive.org/web/20020217233624/http://pc.ign.com...

1: https://web.archive.org/web/20010720053220/http://noonelives...

2: https://github.com/osgcc/no-one-lives-forever

3: https://github.com/haekb/nolf1-modernizer

I loved NOLF and NOLF2. I was actually thinking about pulling them off the shelf and loading them up again the other day. I had no idea that the rights around them was such a mess.

Everybody is waiting for HL3. I want NOLF3

Copyright kills works when rights cannot be negotiated, usually because the rights holder is not to be found, but in this case because the situation is just "complicated".