----- Original Message ----- From: "woodelf" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 2:55 PM Subject: Re: [Ogf-l] Refer?
[snippage] > exactly. which is why i claim that the restrictions of the WotC OGL > are utterly irrelevant, and this is a question of conventional > copyright. now, it may still be illegal, but not because of the > restrictions of the WotC OGL. and, further, it seems to me that if > you want to use just the name/label of something, essentially as a > citation/reference, without any attempt to claim ownership of that > item (and provided there is not a trademark involved, of course), and > without reproducing the actual item, you are in the clear. > -- > woodelf <*> AFAIC, citation enables an academic concept to procreate and evolve. When was the last time someone got sued for mentioning the name of an important and valuable work in an essay or article? Or even describing a concept developed and explained therein? Sure, it MIGHT be illegal (in which case anyone who's done more than a week of university is probably indictable) but in real terms, what's the probelm? Use good robust referencing techniques, and what's the difference to writing an article for print? I'm even less of a lawyer than most of you, but I think that a lot of this is less to do with actual statute than it is to do with reasonable usage. If I want to cite the name of a WotC work, or feat or whatever, then unless I'm actively advised against it, in my non-lawyer brain it'll come up as a citation and therefore be clean. Sensible? Perhaps not. But then again, I'm not a professional publisher, just a hack who likes to mess around with games and mechanics. :L. _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
