imdog wrote:


You are asking a very good question. I may be the one have quite a picture of the subject matter as I have contacted both Justin Warwick and Phil Hall personally talking about the future of Bluemax.

For Justin, his work log is still here.

http://www.hexcellgames.com/blog/phil-hall-blue-max-and-hexcell-games/

For a complete recap of the ongoing, to my understanding some of the active players do use hexcell for two thing.
1. one pilot control multi-plane
2. pilot / campaign mode
3. Replay of the game,

He didn't mention anything about bluemax/canvas egale since 2012, I think he lost interest to it long time ago.

For Phil, the story is much more comlicated. Since all the member here is fans of bluexmax, I have just digout my last couple of email with him day back 2015, his mind is still very clear. Here is the picks of the dialogue.

The context is from this thread
https://www.youplayit.net/play/forum_showmessage.asp?msgid=26000 (this thread is very important as it is almost his last public words about the status of copyright and ongoing development of bluemax.

To keep thing in short, Bluemax copyright is NOT in Phils hand, so for his new work at that time (Canvas Eagle) he can't use any materials from Bluemax and need to develop a new system from scratch, and that prove to be not successful.

That's why both Justin / Phil are both not wrong, as if Justin continue the work, the owner of Bluemax will definitely sue him. However on a personal note to Justin, he already use another name and developed based/ reference to Bluemax idea only.

However, Justin is just a programmer and not a lawyer. He would like to do something much simpler. So he has delveop other interest and avoid developing bluemax at all.

This is the exact wordings from Phil regarding Bluemax copyright status and I think it is final.

"Hi Imdog.

I haven't felt well enough to play lately. I'm still the owner of Blue Max but Stratelibre have the rights to it for the next 25 years. I made sure that they wouldn't interfere with YouPlayIt's use of the online version. You should not have any problem with them and if you do let me know and I'll see what I can do for you.

Good gaming"

The information could be confirmed on Phil memorial page (https://www.owensfuneralhomes.com/obituary/Philip-Hall)

As I have talked with Nick (the very original founder of the site）, Jim burke personally. They are stuck with the copyright days back 10 years ago. Stratelibre of Italy seems to be all the source of the issue, my italiano is not good enough for any investigation.

What Phils offer to nick is the simplest form of bluemax without any advanced feature, as Phil and Stratelibre have some other thing in mind that wish to develop and enjoy the license fee for bluemax in the future. However they won't do any R&D at all for online version.

But someone in Italy may contact them directly to ask for the status. Or check if the company is still existing , if not that we could think of something different, OR according to my dialogue with Nick/Jim/Phil, if you are not using the terms "bluemax" or any printed materials of ruleset, plane status, plane design, but just using the concept like hexcell is completely legal.

Just not mention anything (either print / online with keywords "bluemax" will be fine. But again anyone interested please contact Stratelibre directly for confirmation.

Cheers, .

--- Message edited by imdog