Update: Spidermind Games responded to our request for a statement.

After a three-week pause due to a copyright complaint, Kickstarter has un-frozen the crowdfunding campaign for Spidermind Games’ Elite: Dangerous pen-and-paper RPG. The campaign’s page is back online as of 21:45 GMT.

The complainant appears to have been an individual named Chris Jordan, who filed the complaint on behalf of Ian Bell Elite Rights LLP. Ian Bell is the co-creator of the original 1984 space combat and trading simulator Elite. Bell and partner David Braben parted ways after Elite, with Bell pursuing other interests while Braben continued developing the Elite series (Braben also was instrumental in the development of the Raspberry Pi).

At some point, Ian Bell allegedly sold his portion of the Elite copyright to Chris Jordan. In an e-mail to Spidermind Games obtained by Ars, Jordan appears unhappy that the Elite: Dangerous RPG does not credit Bell. “I’m sad to see you commercially exploiting the work of the one man without which Elite would never have existed, without permission, credit or even mention,” wrote Jordan. “Given you say you are an Elite player and fan, I’m assuming your omission isn’t through mere ignorance.”

Although Jordan filed the complaint on behalf of the Ian Bell Elite Rights LLP entity, there is no indication that Bell had any involvement in or knowledge of the RPG campaign’s takedown.

In the three weeks that the Elite: Dangerous RPG campaign has been stalled, Ars reached out numerous times to Chris Jordan and to Ian Bell for comment. Neither responded.

Spidermind issued the following statement to Ars:

Spidermind Games is in the incredibly fortunate position of having been granted a license from the creators of the iconic MMO Elite Dangerous to create a Role Playing Game in the very same galaxy enjoyed by millions of online players. In looking for funding of this project, Spidermind Games launched a call to Elite Dangerous fans and RPGers alike to help make this game a possibility through a Kickstarter campaign. For reasons known only to themselves, three individuals, with no connection to Frontier Developments, Spidermind Games or Elite Dangerous, decided to attempt to de-rail this project by making allegations of copyright breach. In receiving this allegation Kickstarter suspended our campaign giving the accusers 10 business days to produce proof of their allegation and to begin litigation against us. No contact was received from these individuals since that first email. To force the issue Spidermind Games even issued their own demands direct to the complaining party challenging them to produce proof of this alleged breach. Nothing has been received back. In the intervening 3 week hiatus the campaign has lost a handful of backers and around £3,500 in possible pledges, however it is unclear, with four days left on the clock, whether there will be a return of any of these backers. The most damaging aspect for Spidermind Games was the fact that we had to stop; stop production, stop commissions and stop the many talented people who were working so hard to make this project a possibility. To their credit, some of our team told us that they would carry on regardless, because of their belief in the quality of the game. Our thanks go to them and to all our backers who kept the faith. I am hugely encouraged already by the many comments we have had regarding our reinstatement and we are grateful for all the support.

Now that the campaign has been reinstated, Kickstarter is allowing it to continue for the amount of time it had left to run when it was frozen—about five days. This is standard practice: “If we are able to reinstate a project that was hidden as a result of a copyright dispute, we ‘un-pause’ its countdown clock and it proceeds normally,” explained a Kickstarter spokesperson when Ars contacted the company for comment.

The project had already crossed its funding mark when it was frozen, raising £65,407 (about $81,700) on a goal of £45,000 (about $56,200).

Disclosure: The author of this piece is a backer of the Elite: Dangerous RPG Kickstarter.