> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of > Bryant Durrell > Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 3:46 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [Ogf-l] d20 and Subabilties > > Sure. My point being that, ignoring the greater issue of > whether or not you think that rules systems can be > copyrighted, WotC seems to have created a chilling effect > that extends even to advice given to people who are operating > at a level which has traditionally been given much more wiggle room.
To be fair: if they come to this list, they'll be treated equally with everyone else on this list. That means that, in general, the advice they'll get will be aimed at a level of professional publishing. Even though most everyone here is not a lawyer and is not dispensing legal advice, most try to offer conservative advice that will help the professionals and the professionals-to-be, since that's a major thrust of the list. I fear this list is not a place for "wiggle room" advice. Maybe there could be a "what you can probably get away with" list to serve the fan community, where list members could discuss the likely fringes where Wizards won't take notice; but such a list has the potential to mislead and to create messes. And I'm fairly sure it would be a bad idea for the OGF to host such a list. > I also continue to think that Ryan is simply incorrect if > he's really asserting that magazines have always routinely > sought permission before publishing articles on a third party > game system. For example, check out the matching payments > info at > http://www.sjgames.com/general/guidelines/writers/writers-guid e-othermags.html. A REALLY cool promotional idea on Steve Jackson's part. Kudos to SJG! But that really doesn't invalidate Ryan's point at all. (It doesn't prove him right, either.) Note that they explicitly mentionn the magazines where they'll match payments without question. Maybe SJG and those magazines have already worked out some sort of private license and blanket permission; and maybe when you send in another magazine for consideration, they say "Aha! Time to notify these people that they need our permission for these articles." I don't know either of these "maybes" to be true, mind you; but the payment matching offer isn't incompatible with Ryan's statements. 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
