On Fri, 21 Apr 2000, Rick Loomis wrote:
> I think "very possible" is an exaggeration, unless the work in question is
> very simple and very obvious.
>
In programming, even things thatr are not simple or obvious can
have very specific ways of being done. It makes sense that two students
being taught the same methodology in a high school level programming class
could come up with almost identical code. The level of programming I did
in high school (in prep for AP) was about right for this to happen. There
are only so many ways you can implement a stack as a linked list, for
example, and the variations in between are small.
> If the works are virtually similar, most likely one of the
> people in question found a way to make a copy, and that's most likely the
> way the case would be decided too. There's no way to prove that two people
> "had no contact what-so-ever". (Especially with the internet).
>
I actually had dinner with an IP lawyer last night, and I asked
him what the legal ramifications are of two similar works that are
unconnected. He said that basically someone could sue if they wanted to,
and it would depend on the skill of the lawyers independent of the facts
at that point. I asked him if there had everbeen any cases involving
Cliff's Notes, since my "Not D20" idea was sort of a Cliff's Notes for the
PHB, and he said most of the works that have Cliff's Notes were old enough
to be in the public domain, but there wasone case years ago.. He didn't
recall the outcome, but that might be applicable to the OG situation.
--
"Anyway, my point was that Crawl is way too hard, and I see no negative
game balance issues by doubling the amount of player hitpoints."
- Cybernard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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