I was just talking about general copyright law, not "open-ness".  Obviously,
wnything actually in the SRD is open (by definition).

Someone argued that copyright law wouldn't protect "dragons", I included two
very different (and IMHO <IANAL> protectable) variants of the generic "dragon".

--- woodelf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >IMHO, the whole "chromatic" vs. "metallic" and Paladine vs. Tiamat 
> >makes up the
> >idiosyncratic elements of DnD dragons...plus metallics have 2 breath
> weapons,
> >color determines which breath weapon, all of this makes their dragons unique
> >and, therefore, protectable.
> 
> except that they've released almost all of that via the D20SRD.  just 
> from the stats, i know that they come in 10 flavors, 5 of which are 
> good and 5 of which are evil.  i know that breath weapons are linked 
> to color, (as are intelligence, size, and several other things), and 
> that the good/metallic ones have 2 breath weapons.  basically, the 
> elements of D&D dragons that i cannot infer from the released 
> material are only:
> 
> --Tiamat & Bahamut
> --personality trends: the fact that, frex, Copper dragons are 
> gregarious while Bronze dragons are isolationist (or do i have those 
> backwards?--i don't have any books right in front of me)
> --the fact that Gold dragons have long sinuous bodies, whiskers, and 
> 4 legs, while all the rest of them have lizard-like bodies with 4 
> legs and 2 wings (and no hair, just scales)
> 
> IOW, dragons are a poor example, because, while there's a *lot* of 
> D&D-specific stuff that TSR/WotC has added over the years, very 
> little of it doesn't show up in the D20SRD--so i think it's a bit 
> hard to argue that a dragon illustration that is like those in the 
> D&D3E MM must be illegally derivative.  only if you decide to get the 
> horny bits on the head exactly the same would i expect it to be a 
> problem.
> -- 
> woodelf                <*>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://webpages.charter.net/woodelph/
> 
> If any religion is right, maybe they all have to be right.  Maybe God
> doesn't care how you say your prayers, just as long as you say them.
> --Sinclair
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=====
Jasyn Jones
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson

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