> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of woodelf > Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 12:03 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [Ogf-l] d20 and Subabilties > > > At 18:21 -0800 1/20/03, Ryan S. Dancey wrote: > >Prior to the advent of the OGL, all the major > >publishers took it as an article of understood law that anyone seeking > >to publish any content that was a derivative work based on their games > >needed their advance permission. > > magazine articles, too?
Usual disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. The derivative nature of a work is not dependent on its length nor on where or in what medium it appears. So the core answer should be "yes". Of course, there's a rather fuzzy line between commentary (allowed under Fair Use, and a common form of magazine article) and a derivative work. I'm no lawyer, but I'd feel VERY confident writing a d20 game review without benefit of the OGL. But I'll go farther: I'd feel confident writing a magazine article which analyzed d20 probability curves, discussed why I loved or hated them, discussed how well they match reality, discussed how well they match the conventions of different genres, and compared them to probability curves for other games. Even though my article would be built on the d20 rules in a lot of ways, it would be commentary on those rules, and I'd feel safe under Fair Use. But if I then said, "And here's a way to roll dice that's compatible with d20 mechanics, produces the same range of results, but ends up with better probability curves that better match reality," then I'm wandering into that fuzzy line. I've stopped explaining what I dislike about d20, and I've started to create new rules. That's very likely derivative. And that's a pretty small change between a Fair Use commentary and a derivative work. So small that a lot of writers and editors are going to have trouble catching it. And if Evil Space Aliens take over the minds of the folks at Wizards and begin a Lawsuit Frenzy, there could be a lot of borderline cases -- even ones where the editor and writer should prove to be right -- that waste a lot of time, money, and creative energy. It's safer for the magazines to work under the OGL, where the difference between commentary and derived work need not be settled. 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
