> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of John Farrell
> Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 6:11 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [Ogf-l] No no...sue ME!
>
>
> Wait another spontaneous thought....
> Ill name the my world the:
>
> Jahragel the Ancient Cavern of Forgotten Times
> and have a party of adventures be a tie in to the information that I
> present.
>
> This group will be the adventurers that "discovered" the cavern
> and returned
> to tell about it.
>
> Like Berdic's (a Dwarf Fighter) Creature Log,
> or Beno's (the Gnomish Wizard) Guide to Magic in the Jahragel Cavern
> or even Flick's (human thief) guide to "buying" in Cities
> the last one is a character that died because he rolled a 1 trying to jump
> over a 7ft ravine
All great ideas. And I like the name!
> And the possibility of expansion beyond a free OGC is highly, just not
> desirable at this time.
> What should I do to make the work OGC for now but then copyrightable
later?
Gotta go get a late lunch, so this will have to be brief. I'll skip my usual
explanations why you'll need a lawyer, and just say that you probably will.
The bigger this project gets, the more likely you need a lawyer.
OGC and copyright are not incompatible. Work you create is copyrighted
(registered or not, under US law and others). If you release it as OGC, that
makes it reusable by others; but you still hold the copyright. Everyone must
credit you when they reuse it.
If you want to keep the rights to your characters and your cave while still
releasing a good generic supplement, mark them as Product Identity. Then
people can use your stats and stuff (basically, everything you mark as Open
Game Content, and I believe you intended this all to be OGC), but not your
characters.
And then if you want extra legal protection, you can trademark your
character and cavern names. That will also allow you to issue a limited
license to the use of these names. This can be important for a lot of
reasons; but here's the one that most immediately springs to mind. Suppose
you write up a description of Tar Pits as OGC; but in the description, Flick
describes what happened to Beno when he fought a monster in the pit. If Beno
is your Product Identity, then people who reuse your description can't reuse
your description. Why? Because "Beno" is PI and thus NOT OGC, even when it
appears in OGC. So to reuse your description, I would have to replace "Beno"
with "Bobby". But if you crafted a limited use license that somehow (I'm no
lawyer, so don't ask me how) permitted the use of trademarked names but only
in verbatim reproductions of your OGC, then under that I could use "Beno" in
the description but not in new material of my design. (I'm not sure if
"Beno" would have to be a trademark for this, or if simple PI would do.
Please consult a lawyer.)
Hope this helps! Off to lunch!
Martin L. Shoemaker
Martin L. Shoemaker Consulting, Software Design and UML Training
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.MartinLShoemaker.com
http://www.UMLBootCamp.com
_______________________________________________
Ogf-l mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
