[Freeciv] Re: it's like a screenplay

["SamBC" <sambc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Low experience of the gaming (not just computer) world here, methinks

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brandon Van Every
>
>
>
> > If i bought AD&D and i don't like the world but like the rules, so i
> will
> > play Warhammer with rules of AD&D with my friends, than we will get
> sued?
>
> I'm thinking not.  But if you published those rules as your own, yes you
> would/could be.

But how many companies bother, and the lack of legal precedent fails to
convince me when matters are unclear. To cite one example, the WotC board
strategy game 'Robot Wars'. There exists many many rules variations,
expansions, etc, online. Such extensions are perfectly valid, as would be
the extensions described above, provided that: the copying of copyright
material is on the minimum necessary to convey the extension or render it
usable. So in AD&D you would be perfectly permitted to copy the style &
format of their weapon tables & verbatim copies of notes for other weapons
where they are required for your extension. This is not a matter of clear
legislation, but of past performance.

However, that was OT. It is relevant in that we have copied nothing verbatim
but concepts. We do not distribute a copy of the CivII techtree wallchart,
or the rulebook, or any similar feature. And we have had legislation quoted
that shows that copying of the ideas, rather than the actual works of
authorship, is valid.


SamBC
The Movement for simpleLinux    http://sourceforge.net/projects/simpleLinux/
          site soon to be at    http://simplelinux.sourceforge.net