> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Todd Landrum > Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 4:41 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [Ogf-l] Derivative Works > > > >> Parts of the program are a deriviative work of the System Reference > Document > > Sorry if this is a rehashed question (the archive only has Jan?) and not to > open the software/OGL can of worms again, but what constitues a derivative > work?
The problem is, copyright law is kinda vague on what exactly constitutes a derivative work. So "derivative" tends to be in the eye of the beholder. That leads to ugly litigation when two parties disagree, and we finally get a court ruling that a PARTICULAR work is or is not derivative. It's a simple concept: if X is based on or derived from Y, it's a derivative work. But the application is not so simple, and leads to a lot of judgement calls. One particularly ugly area is "compatible with": there are cases where "compatible with" has been declared NOT derivative, but "compatible with" seems awfully close to "based on". And that, in theory, is the purpose of the OGL: to provide a license to create derivative/compatible works that is clearer than the guidance of copyright law. There are differing schools of thought on how well the OGL succeeds in this regard. > My program provides a form where, for example, spells can be entered. It has > titles like "Target/Area of Effect" which would be from the SRD but, for > purposes of this discussion, there is no data there - just labels/words. > Just by using those words it is derivative? "Target" and "Area of Effect" are commonplace enough concepts that, by themselves, I doubt anyone would see them as derivative. Archery ranges have targets, and pesticide fogger have areas of effect; and we could cite all sorts of other common examples. But if you use enough commonplace terms that are all used in the same ways in the same source (i.e., the SRD), a reasonable person might conclude that your program is derivative. In that case, you need some sort of license before you may distribute your program; and if that license is the OGL, you have some ugly problems with regard to clearly indicating your OGC. (It's too bad there appears to be an archive problem, because there's a LOT to read on this subject.) > It seems analagous to a character sheet. Is a character sheet derivative? In my opinion: it has to be, unless it's a "generic" character sheet suitable for any game. 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://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
