rec.autos.simulators

There has been alot of speculation about Sega's monopolization of the Daytona
licence.  Can you give us any information on your current negotiations with
Nascar and Daytona regarding this?  I agree it would not be in your best
interests to bypass thier blessing by naming it something like Daytoni. We
will all continue to write them expressing our feelings, I am just curious to
know  what your current status is, and whether it looks like you will be able
to release a Daytona track for Nascar Racing.  Also, it would be wise to have
your programmers make it now, so when you get the license you could release it
immediately.  Your response would be greatly appreciated!  Also could you let
us know when the Sega contract expires???

Todd

Go #3

Unfortunately, I can not, since I have no knowledge about negotiations
with NASCAR and Daytona about the track license. Note that while we have
an excellent relationship with NASCAR, even though we are now part of
Sierra On-Line we simply can't compete with Sega; if Sega goes to Daytona
and offers them millions of dollars to renew the license, then there isn't
much we can do about it.

Rick Genter
Technical Lead, IndyCar Racing II
Papyrus Design Group, Inc.

When you license the use of a track, what are you actually paying for -
the name, or the track profile?

Where would you stand legally, if you constructed a model of a track that
happened (by pure coincidence) to be identical to Daytona, but called it
something else?

Steve.

Do you think that aggressive letter writing to Daytona will actually play
against the money issue?
From my experience it seems that this issue is definitely of concern to
them.  You think that they are the type of organization that will see the
advantage of non-exclusive licensing from PR standpoint?
(hope so)

I don't know the legalese, but it's something to the effect of "the name
and likeness" of the track. Likeness includes what the track looks like,
its banking, its landscaping, etc.

As I've explained in the past, even if we thought we could get away with a
Daytona-clone, our relationship with NASCAR is too valuable to us to try
and pull something like that.

Rick Genter
Technical Lead, IndyCar Racing II
Papyrus Design Group, Inc.

Great answer!  I certainly like that.  Integrity in a programing company,
now if only we could get microsoft to try it!  Or just about any
politician, either.

Rick, just picked up ICR2 today.  Good work so far.  I had to upgrade to
a 486/75 to see if it really would work.  I was surprised at how little
downforce these machines have.  (Also by how much metal crinkles when
machine meets wall...)  I was able to out do Mario Andretti's best at
Michigan though...  But still didn't get the pole...

Mike