LMAO. Ecclestein probably wanted $10 Million from Sony just to allow them to make it. He's brought the series back from it's decline in the last 20 years, but it will be sad to lose the US, England and France over "I WANT MORE MONEY" bickering.
The only thing F1 can protect, IMHO, is their trademark, and even UK won't allow that. LOL. You can create a FANTASY series called Formula2 with identical cars, even the same sponsors on them (I don't think the sponsors will mind free advertising) and release it as a mod on the same tracks.....don't see any infringment there....F1 doesn't OWN the tracks..and F1 doesn't own the car manufactures....besides, all the mods are interpretation of design and not 100% accurate....such as bumps, angles, radius, etc..etc...etc.. If they want to release a game with their stamp on it...let them, but when a game like rFactor is released, I simply can't see them doing anything about it as long as you are not trying to use their F1 Logo to promote it's sale.
My biggest dissapointment with rFactorCentral is the lack of file hosting. It's an incredible site for that game, and the contributions and editors do an outstanding job.
It is being talked about and considered. I've added a forum on Paul's FOTF section under Modding Community so he can share his work and mods.