[Freeciv] Re: copyright issue

[David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Brandon Van Every" wrote:

>  Rules are copyrightable intellectual property in case you're not aware.

This seems a strong claim to me, since the usual explanation of 
copyright is that it protects _expression_, and not, for example,
ideas.  So I could see that specific text describing the rules 
would be protected by copyright (eg, a game manual), but not the 
abstract rules themselves.  OTOH it could be that "game rules" are 
protected as intellectual property in some other way (that is, other 
than copyright), which would be interesting to hear.  IANAL etc.

Regards,
-- David