From: "Clark Peterson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> My question is: Can WotC or anyone else republish my
> closed text without my permission?
No, of course not.
Now, if you put material derived from Open Game Content in your product and
don't mark it as Open, the copyright holder of the original Open Gaming
Content could sue you for violating the Open Gaming License and thus a
copyright violation.
> I would like to hear an answer such as: "WotC will not
> take closed material and republish it and it is not
> our intent to allow others to do it either."
The first part of that sentence is true. The second part is not our
problem.
> I am not talking about rules or monsters or items.
> That stuff, derived from the d20 SRD, should be open.
> I am only referring to the original text--the "plot"
> if you will.
If you create a murder mystery where "the butler did it", don't be surprised
to see someone use that idea elsewhere. You can't copyright an idea (not
even a plot). There is no way to use the law to stop someone from using
your ideas, only your specific expressions of those ideas.
You want to make a movie about a pair of robots who befriend a young farm
boy on a distant world, the young farm boy being the son of a galactic
criminal, who fights with a laser sword, goes to a space station the size of
a moon, meets a frieghter captain with a seven foot dog-man as a first mate,
and saves the day with a lucky shot down an exhaust port of the station -
you can.
Call that boy "Luke", the captain and first mate "Han and Chewbacca", the
space station "the Death Star", the laser swords "lightsabers" and the
robots "Droids", and you'll get a nastygram from Lucasfilm Ltd.
> I dont want someone taking my story and turning the
> plot from it into the next Baldur's Gate with me
> getting nothing.
A concern far outside the scope of Open Gaming. Convince Congress to extend
the copyright laws to cover plots and you might have some redress.
Ryan
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