> a compromise would be needed to balance Atari’s commercial interests (which of course they are entitled to pursue as the rights holder)

No, fuck 'em. They had nothing to do with developing the game, and in a sane copyright structure a thirty-year-old work would be public domain by now.

Agreed. Publishers need to be knocked off this absurd moral high ground. If merely being rich is enough for me to profit off of Miles Davis songs for decades after his death, copyright is just another wealth redistribution to the rich. Steal all the games and music, and any ghoul that claims I’m stifling creativity can compare their compositions to mine.

> They had nothing to do with developing the game

OpenTTD started as an effort to translate the original game’s assembly into higher level code.

It was not a clean room implementation. The original code was used as a base.

> in a sane copyright structure

You are not wrong. But alas we don't have that. ANd in the reality we live in this collaboration is way better than the alternative.

Well, they shouldn't be entitled but they are entitled.

But it's not and we don't live in fantasy land. Your approach would have it shut down tomorrow.