|-----Original Message-----
|From: Rogers Cadenhead [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
|Sent: Friday, April 27, 2001 12:27 PM
|To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
|Subject: RE: [Ogf-l] Copyright and Patent Cases (long)
|
|Napster is just the latest front on the battle between these
|two competing
|interests. While some people think it is clearly theft, I
|think it's closer
|to the
|way consumers tape TV programs and share the tapes with each
|other, which
|TV networks considered illegal behavior when VCRs became
|popular. Most of
|us view this activity today as fair use.
In terms of Napster, Taping a show off TV and sharing it with your friends would be like taping a song off the radio, converting it to MP3 and e-mailing it to a couple of friends.
The reverse, Sharing songs across Napster would be like buying a copy X-men the movie for $19.95, making several hundred copies of it and sending those out to anyone who asked for them.
|Getting this back to open gaming, I think licenses like the
|OGL are a way for
|copyright creators to give back some of the power they have
|accrued over the
|years, as copyright terms increase and fair use provisions
|seem to get tighter
|and tighter. It's a matter of furious debate whether
|publishers like WOTC have
|as much right to limit derivative work as they believe, but
|now that the
|OGL and
|D20 SRD are becoming available, the point is largely moot. I
|can't imagine that
|anyone is going to choose the old Mayfair Games "suitable for
|use with D&D"
|route when this alternative is available.
