> Anything else might be a copyright violation. It'sfar from clear-cut, where RPG mechanics are concerned. Not that it's a good idea--just that it's not clearly illegal.
Spoken like a true intellectual in an ivory tower.
Let's put it this way--its clearly illegal enough to people who actually have to decide whether or not to do it that NODBODY IS DOING IT.
In part because of the relative ease of using the WotC OGL, and the relatively minor costs associated with it. There were a fair number of people doing it when it was the only way to have compatibility with D&D.
To repeat, for guys sitting in their rooms debating it with nothing on the line, it is "up in the air" and a "grey area" "needing to be resolved by the courts."
For people actually putting time and money into a project, it is clear enough.
He is partially right, I will concede. There is at least some argument that D&D is more like poker and thus the "game rules" arent copyrightable. I wouldnt bet on that, though, and neither is anyone else currently.
Well, unless you count Palladium Fantasy. I'd say that, if WotC's belief/claim that RPG mechanics can be owned is valid, the Palladium games would be clear-cut infringers. Unless you have to use 100% of the mechanics before it's an infringement.
Hey, maybe woodelf would like to infringe on WotC's copyrights and he could serve as the test case! That way we could all find out!
Well, point of order, i have no interest in infringing on copyrights--that is, i'm not gonna start copying verbatim text. What i question is whether the underlying mechanics can be protected. I know you know this, but there might be others here who don't.
Or, maybe, when he puts his money where his mouth is he too will concede that it is just enough clearly illegal that it isnt worth trying.
Actually, i'm just enough of an idealist, and just gutsy/stupid enough, that i may yet do it. I'd've been a *lot* more comfortable doing it before the WotC OGL and D20SRD, however, because i suspect that if it were to go to court today, the number of people using the license would be trotted out as evidence that "all these people" implicitly accept/agree to WotC's claims of ownership.
Also, it probably depends a great deal what you'd expect for a "test case". I'm certainly not about to produce a huge verbatim copying of a significant chunk of anyone's works, whether i respect them or like their works, or not--that *is* clearly copyright infringement, and i'd consider that morally abhorent. So it'd have to be something that reused a significant chunk of the underlying mechanics without reusing large swaths of text. However, that then gets to the definition of "significant chunk". Frex, what if i have a game that uses the use and replenishment mechanics from the SAGA system, but uses standard playing cards? In fact, it's conceivable that Four Colors al Fresco could be considered infringing on SAGA, if you accept the argument that RPG rules, at least in toto, are ownable. Though, if it is, it's by accident--i didn't consciously emulate SAGA, and i'm not even sure i'd bought or read it when we first came up with the mechanics of Four Colors al Fresco. But, frankly, i'm not sufficiently enamored of any WotC products to have any motive except test case, and that's not good enough for me. Or, more specifically, the ways in which i'd like to infringe, if i could, are IP that i neither contest, nor have the basis of any kind of argument to question. Frex, i'd love to publish my "Arcane Space" setting, which has nothing in common with D&D (of any version) mechanically, but uses illithids, beholders, and a number of other unique IP elements owned by WotC. But i know it'd be infringing, and don't have any reason to challenge that IP. So, while i'll gladly put my money on the line in a test case, should one come up, i rather doubt one will occur, 'cause most of the stuff i want to do is nothing like D20 System. And, when it comes to doing D20 System stuff, i don't care enough to take a stand. That is, if it were to come down to not publishing a D20 System product or risking a lawsuit, i'd just not publish it. But if it were to come down to not publishing, say, Four Colors al Fresco or Dread, or risking a lawsuit, i'd probably take the lawsuit (assuming, of course, that i sincerely believed i was in the right).
--
woodelf <*>
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