On Wed, 18 Oct 2000, Marc Tassin, Ilium Software wrote:
> If it were the Monster Manual would be part of the Open Content
> and so far I see no indication that this will be the case. Yes, monster
> stats may certainly be open but again, you are discussing rules, something
> no one has EVER been able to lay a claim to, even prior to the OGL.
You see no indication? Ryan has said, repeatedly that at least 70% of the
monster manual will be released under the OGL, and the rest under the
D20STL. Also, to be a heretic, I'm not sure that monster stats are
"rules" in the context of copyright law.
"Monster have an armor class that tells how hard they are to hit" is an
uncopyrightable rule.
"a foo dragon's armor class is 31" may or may not be a rule in that
context. The whole "game rules can't be copy righted concept" dates back
to when "games" were things like Baseball, not Fantasy Role Playing Games.
It's an aspect of copyright law that has not been tested in the courts,
and I have _no_ idea how that is going to play out, nor does any one
else....
> In addition, rules are a totally different thing than creative
> property. Frankly rules are ALREADY open game to anyone who wants to take
> the time to rewrite them. You can't patent them. You can't trademark
> them. You can't copyright them. The same is NOT true of creative
> property. If making anything and everything open was an effective
> marketing strategy why not just make the PHB and DMG Open Content? Why
> mess around writing a carefully crafted SRD? Because it is the creative
> property that makes a product unique and marketable and if you give that up
> you are giving up the one thing that has financial value.
And that _is_ the crux of my argument. "Mages may cast spells" is a rule.
I don't think the game stats for, say "Magic Missile" is a rule, in the
full context of the copyright law, it being a mixture of "rules" and
"creative property". IANAL, etc...
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