Ron has said "The only way I would or could make another Monkey Island is if I owned the IP."

https://grumpygamer.com/if_i_made_another_monkeyisland

I guess M. Gilbert deliberately chosen to work for money, chosen to sell its IP to Disney or some publisher. So basically, his choices determine the current situation. We should respect that.

He never owned the IP in the first place.

That would seem to be a sensible workaround.

It's not a case of handing or selling back rights, as I understand it. The games were developed as works-for-hire under contract to LucasArts. Therefore Ron Gilbert didn't own the rights once completed.

"So this idea came out from your head, and completely made by you, but because you took some money, its like your act of creation never happened. We will deprive you of your very minds creativity and create holes in which you can never discuss again."

.... And here I thought software and content piracy was unethical.

Work for hire is a globally recognised principle of copyright law. How else could it possibly work?

> Work for hire is a globally recognised principle of copyright law.

Yes, that idea was made by Disney and similar orgs. And then the USA exported those laws to other nations.

> How else could it possibly work?

The ideas are innately in a person's head. Simply put, the licensure of a creation could travel around with whomever hires the person.

But in reality, I'm allowed to criticize a broken system without having to come up with a "better" system. Just an FYI.

The counterpoint being that without the money provided by the contractee, the individual with the idea in his head may not ever reify that concept.

None of the IP of commercial software I've written resides with me. I don't feel deprived of it though.

Provided that Ron would want to do it in such scenario at all.