I just want to make sure: It is Atari, right?

Take it with a grain of salt because I might be mostly wrong. I'm not a IP lawyer and I haven't done all the research to verify the following, but this is what I understand...

Monolith sold the rights to GT interactive. Infogrames, a European based company, acquired the rights when they bought GT Interactive, they also bought Atari and started using the Atari name. The current Atari bankruptcy has to do with the American division of Atari wanting to split off from the European division (previously Infogrames), so I imagine that there might be some debate whether or not Atari (Europe) has the Blood copyright or if it is in the hands of the American division. Infogrames briefly published Blood II in Europe. The American division might be considered the old GT Interactive, but I don't know.

Warner Brothers had the TM for a bit, presumably they got it when the gobbled up Monolith, but they canceled it in 2009.

I'm not 100% sure how current European copyright works, but I understand that if an EU company acquires a copyright, but doesn't do anything with it, reverts back to the original artist. I'm not sure if there is a distinction between an individual and a company when it comes to copyright transferal... but Atari is selling it both here and on it's own website so that probably doesn't apply anyway.

I am not sure who has it now, but Atari had the IP 2-3 months ago when they canceled Jace Hall's Blood sourceport project (can't remember the exact date, think it was in March).

Hmmmm, I see. The bankruptcy complicates things, sure. But I still wonder to this day why any company would be against releasing the source code to a game produced more than a decade ago.

Because Atari is just a publisher, not a developer. They would have to hire some one that can read what code is what to make Blood work with the open source version of Build, sans Bink* codecs.

Honestly the only way I think we would see Blood source code would be if it were "leaked".

EDIT: Bink, not Blink. http://www.radgametools.com/bnkmain.htm

Quick, someone call the Ecuadorian Embassy in the UK and get Julian Assange on our case!

Jace Hall (one of the original devs) has the source code, and wanted to make that open source last year. Unfortunately he discovered then that he can't do it because of some copyrighted parts of that code (don't know what in this case, probably some media stuff).
He then wanted to do a source port (the main reason he wanted to release the code) himself, but he needs money for that (probably just payment for him as he wanted to do that full time), and as it seems consent from the rights holder. And that project sounded promising until Atari in the midst of their bankruptcy killed it unceremoniously with an unpersonal letter to Hall.
And that's where we are today, hopefully Hall will persue other ways to make Blood live... again.

I'm sure someone has suggested a kickstarter but....has someone suggested a kickstarter?

The though did come to mind.

The trouble is that it will be in limbo until they get the bankruptcy sorted out. Worst case scenario: Blood gets auctioned off to liquidate assets and an IP troll law firm snags it up along with a fist full of other titles with the soul purpose of suing the pants off anyone who might think of doing a title with similar themes.

Depends on how they handle the assets and what legal firewalls are in place. If they still had full control over the IP, they probably wouldn't have had an issue with Jason Hall doing something with it. That suggests that they are just letting the lawyers sort it out.

Update: Just did a search for recent news about Atari and it looks like they are, in fact, looking to sell off assets: Bankrupt Atari In Talks To Sell Off Assets. Maybe there should be a Kickstarter to save the Blood IP and just stick it in Creative Commons.

Ok...here's what needs to happen. Someone needs to contact Jason IMMEDIATELY. There are so many people who would give to this project! I will pawn shit! GAH!

it looks like that full article doesn't always appear, here is the Google cache: Bankrupt Atari In Talks To Sell Off Assets.

Not sure we could tease out Blood on it's own, but they want 5-10 million for the whole kit.

But again that doesn't really say who owns Blood right now; the American or European divisions?

Man we've got to find out. Wouldn't it be awesome if there was a kickstarter to form a game company, buy all the rights to those games, and then have an early stake in it? Hehe ~ I can dream ^^

Just an update on the Atari bankruptcy. It looks like Atari wants to sell off assets for $22 million (not the 5-10 previously stated), and they want to sell off individual titles. WSJ lists, Fatty Bear's Birthday Suprise, Humongous, Math Gran Prix, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Test Drive, & Total Annihilation, but nothing about Blood. I wonder where WSJ got the titles they listed from, you would think they would all be listed someplace.

Update: Okay, I think I found the list, how much they want and when they are selling.

RollerCoaster Tycoon Franchise $3,500,000 July 16, 2013
Test Drive Franchise $1,500,000 July 16, 2013
Humongous Franchise, Fatty's Bear's Birthday Surprise, Math Gran Prix $500,000 July 17, 2013
Backyard Sports Franchise $750,000 July 17, 2013
Total Annihilation Franchise $250,000 July 17, 2013
Airborne Ranger Franchise $100,000 July 18, 2013
Battlezone Franchise $250,000 July 18, 2013
Master of Orion Franchise $100,000 July 18, 2013
Moonbase Commander Franchise $100,000 July 18, 2013
Star Control Franchise $100,000 July 18, 2013
Atari Brand / Atari Classics / Atari Casino $15,000,000 July 19, 2013

Now considering that they have stated that they want $22 million for their assets and the above numbers add up to just over $22 million, and Blood is not on the list. Either they don't have the rights to sell it, or they don't plan on selling it.