Glad to hear that you will be able to run Tiger Woods PGA 2003 again on your 2010 iMac with Snow Leopard! đ
Acquisition of IP rights are subject to negotiations and every acquisition can differ.
In the field of sports, generally personalities, such as a Tiger Woods, would license his name and likeness for one year for the game with an advance and royalty. After all who wants to buy a 2003 game if another got personality has "his game" available in 2004 with a 2005 date in the title?
Of course, there may be renewal options based upon income projections with an updated date in the title. But chances are that EA/Aspyr lost their license to this title when they did not enter into a new or renewal deal with Tiger Woods for an updated title. They would have a period of time to sell off their existing inventory and retailers would usually have an unlimited time to sell off their stock.
For example, I once helped a fan of Fred Astaire obtain a copy of his first TV Special, An Evening with Fred Astaire, aired on NBC on October 17, 1958. This special was noteworthy for not only being Mr. Astaire debut on television, but the first use of color videotape that was "shot live" and then edited for broadcast.
This fan was so taken with this special that he wanted to obtain all the rights to do a 50th Anniversary Telecast on PBS. However among all of the rights that he would have to obtain, the music licensing on behalf of, if I remember correctly, the Irving Berlin estate required too high of an upfront advance for his budget.
You see when somebody owns the IP, they get to set the rules and in this case in order to hire the attorneys to negotiate the license, pay their overhead, and get what they felt was adequate compensation for what they consider to be the "jewel" of music publishing, they set too high a price for the project to go forward.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oivx0aJJmC8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lghtn6LttCQ