Activision suspends sale of Leisure Suit Larry source code

The planned sale of the source code of Leisure Suit Larry is canceled after a protest from Activision. Lawyers for the game publisher have allegedly threatened legal action, despite Activision not owning the source code.

At the beginning of this month, Al Lowe, the creator of Leisure Suit Larry, put the source code of the games on eBay. It was then eagerly bid, but recently the posted listings were removed from eBay. A fan had a phone conversation with Lowe and learned that lawyers on behalf of Activision have threatened legal action, PcGamesN reports. Activision declined to comment on the coverage, however.

The promotion is notable because Activision does not own the source code of Leisure Suit Larry. The reason for the legal complaint is that the source code of Leisure Suit Larry contains parts that also appear in other games, which Activision does own. Lowe would not have wanted to fight the case in court because of the legal costs.

The items on offer were copies of the source code of Leisure Suit Larry 1 and 2, as well as the Apple II games Bop-A-Bet and Dragon’s Keep. The software is on old 5.25″ floppy disks, with additional backups on diskettes. The rights to the games were not included, however, because Al Lowe does not own them.