" So you would agree with some of the posters of the last few days that most public domain words can't be PIed (a position I agree with), but you disagree about the possibility of PIing a name derivable from a public domain source as it applies to a particular character? (That is, since the word "Spike" is available in the public domain, if there was an OGL Buffy the Vampire-Slayer Game, the publisher wouldn't be able to PI the word Spike as it applied to one of the characters in that series?)"
I think that it is possible to PI a name in conjunction with the character that name represents, sure. I just don't think the name in and of itself is the only thing that merits protection. In and of themselves, most names (especially for those that are common or derived from public domain) aren't the thing that people want to protect via PI designation. What they want to protect is the character as a whole; the name is merely a portion of that protected intellectual property. To that extent, PI designations involving names should, in general, be very specific. Perhaps "The character/NPC named so and so and any descriptions, mannerisms. . ." As far as the IP laws themselves are concerned, it would seem a lot of them are superseded by the OGL. Matt -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Spike Y Jones Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 8:12 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Ogf-l] PI declarations On Mon, 15 Aug 2005 08:50:15 EDT [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > My literal reading of the PI definition says to declare PI it must > be ownable and you must own it. Meaning you can't declare public > domain stuff per se. So you would agree with some of the posters of the last few days that most public domain words can't be PIed (a position I agree with), but you disagree about the possibility of PIing a name derivable from a public domain source as it applies to a particular character? (That is, since the word "Spike" is available in the public domain, if there was an OGL Buffy the Vampire-Slayer Game, the publisher wouldn't be able to PI the word Spike as it applied to one of the characters in that series?) Spike Y Jones _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
