lapsed right

In 2000, the game publisher Interplay bought the lapsed rights and began quietly selling the game as a budget title.

And added to the unreleased are hundreds of other titles that were released but, for reasons ranging from distributor bankruptcy to lapsed rights, are out of print.

(The sad fact that it is currently in print only because Harvard University Press picked up the lapsed rights says a lot about the state of contemporary trade publishing.)