> Tom Caudron
>
> 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 am loathe to go down this road again, but I will briefly state the issues
as I understand them as they relate to the OGL.
First, copyrights and trademarks/servicemarks work very differently, and are
covered under entirely different federal statutes. I will confine my
remarks to copyrights ONLY.
There are two fundamental principles operating here. The first is that
ideas are not protected by copyright, only the creative expression of those
ideas. One of the most illustrative examples of this this feature of
copyright law is in popular fiction. If ideas could be copyrighted, then
plot devices would be protected, and we wouldn't have movies, books, and
television being endlessly derivative of each other. The second is that
game rules are ideas. This particular principle is what keeps a great many
game companies in the RPG industry from suing each other into oblivion when
new games borrowed heavily from the good ideas of their predecessors.
You are correct that derivation need not mean an exact duplication, but two
works that are similar only in ways that are necessitated by the ideas they
express cannot be derivative of each other. What this means to the OGL is
that while the rules on character creation and level advancement are
protected by copyright as they are expressed in the PHB, that copyright does
not extend to all expressions of those same rules. Indeed, it does not
extend to any expression of those rules other than those that are
'derivative' as that term is used in copyright law.
This fundamental principle- that ideas (and thus rules) cannot be
copyrighted- is one of the driving factors behind the OGL in the first
place. The OGL is designed to create a safe haven for game rules,
acknowledging that they (being ideas) cannot be protected under copyright
law, and graning special rights to use not only the individual expressions
of those rules in addition to the rules themselves. In exchange for these
special rights, the user agrees that any material on these new rights will
also be available under the same terms as the original material.
Lastly, this particular thread has been beaten to death on this list, and I
am sure that while some would love to take up the torch again, the majority
are tired of it. I'll be happy to continue this discussion in private mail,
and I think I can even goad a few with opinions which differ from mine from
joining in, just so you get a fair picture.
-Brad
