The "Why"

Its strange this would be unfamiliar to you if you deal with IP.

A perpetual license to use is not the same thing as ownership. If Cryptic had sold the rights to the engine, Cryptic itself would no longer have the rights to it. NCSoft could have sold it to someone else. That is what owners are allowed to do. Perpetual right to use is actually the right we as authors grant to NCSoft when we make characters: US copyright law forbids transfer of ownership through blanket agreements like an EULA except in the case of work for hire. NCSoft cannot assert ownership of our characters in that way because at least in the US that is illegal. They *can* demand we grant to them a perpetual right to use the content, which means we can never sue them for using it in any context they wish. But we still own our creations. We don't own the game textures, the powers, the 3D models, and other aspects of our characters, so "using" them without those rights is more theoretical than anything else. But I could sell a book about the adventures of Lady Arcana, energy blaster and NCSoft could not touch me. Unless I mention the Crey, or the Freakshow, or use a screencap on the cover...

Digression. Why didn't Cryptic just sell the engine outright, particularly because they had every intention of writing a new one anyway? Because had they sold, and thus lost the rights to the old engine, NCSoft could theoretically sue them if Cryptic's own programmers accidentally reused code from the old engine. They don't own that anymore. But how do you ensure none of your programmers ever reproduces something they might have written five years ago and just forgot? Had Cryptic sold the engine and all its rights to NCSoft, they would have had to create their next engine under clean-room conditions: using outside programmers who had no prior knowledge of the previous engine. Otherwise, they would be exposing themselves to huge risk of IP violation.

Retaining authorship rights but extending a perpetual right to use the engine to NCSoft allows Cryptic to retain the right to the engine and all its copyrightable IP, which means its entirely harmless if one of their programmers reuses an algorithm or a subroutine. It means they don't have to worry about violating anyone's rights, because they still own everything (in the code). Meanwhile, NCSoft is safe because they can add their own stuff to the code which they will own, and they have the right to use what was left behind in the first place forever, so City of Heroes is safe from IP issues forever as well.

These kind of perpetual use licenses are actually very common in intellectual property circles. They allow one party to gain a guarantee they can use something forever, while guaranteeing another party they can continue to reuse the IP forever without worry of IP entanglement. Its what I always assumed NCSoft was granted, because that's the only thing that makes sense in this situation (that, or a perpetual right to license forever at pre-agreed terms). And that's why I thought the whole theory of license renegotiation was completely bonkers.

Excellent. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you and Jack for putting that to rest.

Now let's take our torches and pitchforks to NCSoft's doorstep!

We already got to play fixed blasters on the beta shard. I'm pretty sure this was the only way to prevent Synapse from fixing Tankers for Johnny_Butane.

ME! I WANTED THEM FIXED FOR ME!!!! WHY!!! WHY MUST THIS WORLD BE SO CRUEL!!!!!