On Wed, 25 Oct 2000 16:00:28 -0400, Tom Caudron took pen in hand to
scribe:
>Really? This isn't how copyrights and trademarks/servicemarks work in
>general. Is there some special provision that I haven't seen? Do the
>OGL/STL docs mention this? The reason I say is because I thought the lvl
>advancement rules from the PHB were not a part of the OGL or the STL and
>therefore fell under normal Copyright law, in which case I don't think you
>can duplicate it in part, in whole, or in effect. The law doesn't take a
>literal approach to this matter. Plagiary need not mean exact duplication
>of text and/or style. I couldn't, for instance, publish a cookbook that has
>the exact recipes found in Joy of Cooking even if I changed the wording
>entirely. That will get me sued...unless I can prove that it was intended
>as parody (the sole exemption to the copyright law that I know of) which
>ain't likely. Has WotC put something out saying that they won't enforce the
>copyright on the level advancement system found in the 3ePHB?
>
>-Tom Caudron
>From what I have gathered here and elsewhere, copyright does not
protect "ideas", only their specific expression. Game rules
themselves, as in the mechanics, are not protected. The exact phrasing
used to express them is. This follows much the same logic as saying
that the basic plot behind a story cannot be protected by copyright,
only the actual telling of it. If this were not the case, there would
be very few new books on the shelves.
As an aside, copyright also does not protect titles or short phrases.
This seems to have lead to the increasing use of trademarks to secure
titles, Star Terk (TM) [or is it (R)?], for example.
I Remain
Brad Johnston
Almost, but not quite exactly unlike tea.
