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Danikat
Green Fox (Mod)
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 Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:13 pm Post subject: Copyright holder tried to stop people playing DnD |
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This is an old issue now as the game has been bought by a new company but it seems that at one time the publishers of DnD decided it was illigal (under copyright law) to create characters based on their outlines or to create stories using their worlds or characters.
Which last time I checked effectively makes it illigal to play DnD. 
No real point in sharing this, I just thought it was amusing. A classic case of a company aquiring a product and trying to market it with no real understanding of what it is they have.
Heres the full story:
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TSR is the publisher of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ("AD&D"), a RPG generally played by creating "characters" to participate in a "story", written by the "game master." These games use a set of rules to arbitrate what the characters may reasonably do and are set in a fictional universe either created by the game master or provided by TSR. Thus, they publish "basic rules" which contain some measure of fiction (such as magic spells) and "game mechanics" (such as "1 game scale inch = 10 feet"). They also publish "game worlds", which contain maps, major characters, and other fictional elements, but do not contain any actual stories for the players to participate in. They also publish various "rules additions", supplements, blank forms to record information, and various other items. In addition, they also publish pre-written "stories" called "modules" that describe people, places, things, and events a group of "characters" might encounter while pursuing their goals. During game play, participants create blank forms, characters, magical items and new spells. The game master creates new worlds, monsters and important third party characters for the players to interact with. And they also create scenarios and records of the player's exploits. Generally gamers share these player-created materials which are often made freely available.
TSR has insisted that all these materials violate their copyrights. They have licensed a single ftp site to carry "approved" material, but required that the others remain closed and to include a disclaimer. Although TSR has not made any attempts to shut down various mailing lists that carry this material, nor have they prevented anyone for posting the material from the ftp sites to the Usenet newsgroup, it still remains to be answered whether their claims are valid. It does seem that parts of their claims are stronger than others, but in most descriptions, the "game mechanics" could easily be converted back into "real world" measurements. And much of the fictional material was published with the express intent of the purchaser creating these supplemental materials. It could be argued that the characters they publish are "stock" characters with little delineation. In fact, the entire point of a RPG is for gamers to delineate these characters. Further, blank forms would also likely be unprotected. The Copyright Office has promulgated a regulation prohibiting copyright in "[b]lank forms, such as time cards, graph paper, account books, diaries, blank checks, scorecards, address books, report forms, order forms, and the like, which are designed for recording information and do not in themselves convey information." 37. C.F.R. §202.1(c). |
http://www.chillingeffects.org/fanfic/faq.cgi
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unlistedgabriel
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| Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 7:07 am Post subject: |
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lol flippin idiots
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UncleAsriel
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| Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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I'm doing a project on law right now to do with copyright: fun with downloading music and why that's illegal.
I look at this case and I have to admit, I am amazed. Could a company, knowing and understanding the type of product they had, actually take this course of action? What kind of idiot would make these allegations without knowing to at least some degree the product in question? Lawyers are supposed to have most of the Gorram facts when they're defending a certain case! Friggen' heyall! This is almost as much fun as the U.S. Secret Service confiscating Steve Jackson Games' main business computer because it contained a forum which had something to do with hacking, i.e. it had FAQs for Cyberpunk RPGs on it. Gotta love the guy who checks their facts for 'em!
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drlupinmario
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| Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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| UncleAsriel wrote: |
| This is almost as much fun as the U.S. Secret Service confiscating Steve Jackson Games' main business computer because it contained a forum which had something to do with hacking, i.e. it had FAQs for Cyberpunk RPGs on it. Gotta love the guy who checks their facts for 'em! |
Heh heh heh
I heard about that. Whats even funnyier is that the Cyperpunk hacking game/simulator called Uplink has a referance to that |
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Danikat
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| Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 5:35 am Post subject: |
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I remember hearing something about that.
Always good to know our governments are well informed and up to date.
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