At 08:07 PM 8/26/00 -0700, "kevin kenan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>So by your opinion, the d20SRD can be used without the OGL since it is
>a document of rules and rules can't be copyrighted? If you believe
>this, why are you even bothering with the OGL? Just release your works
>under the GFDL.
I'm assuming that if I sat down with D&D 3E and rewrote the rules in my
own words, there's some way under the law that it constitutes a
copyright infringement. But if I wrote a work on my own without using
anyone else's game as a blueprint, my game could have many of the same
rules and it would not be a copyright infringement. If you read the U.S.
Copyright Office information at http://www.loc.gov/copyright/, you will
see that rules are described as one of the things copyright does not
cover. I think, and this is just a personal opinion, that if someone
tossed out all of his D&D books and wrote a game from memory codifying
the house rules he had been playing under for 20 years, it could probably
qualify as a new game as long as D&D trademarks and copyrighted setting
elements (such as the "Bigby" and "Tenser" spells) were avoided.
Rogers Cadenhead
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.prefect.com
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