Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Green Ronin not signing GSL (Forked Thread: Doing the GSL. Who?)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="yogipsu" data-source="post: 4383985" data-attributes="member: 19971"><p>One doesn't need to bring up caselaw to refute your assertions that copyright protects nothing more than word-for-word (or bit-for-bit) copying: the Copyright Act itself does that.</p><p></p><p>Wulf Ratbane is entirely correct: your advice is not only incorrect, as it seems to be based on a somewhat incomplete understanding of copyright law (e.g., you appear to be referencing Castle Rock Ent. v. Carol Pub. Group and another case that I can't place).</p><p></p><p>I'd be happy to explain further, but let me first refute your use of the Seinfeld case. In <em>Castle Rock</em>, the defendant published a Seinfeld trivia book. The owners of the Seinfeld IP sued for copyright infringement, and the appeals court determined that defendant had misappropriated the IP.</p><p></p><p>The defendant then raised a fair use defense, which was rejected. Any student of fair use knows that it turns on four elements: (1) the purpose and character of the work, (2) the nature of the copyrighted work, (3) the amount and substantiality used, and (4) the effect the copying has on the market of the work. Basically, the trivia book was commercial (which weighs against, but does not mandate, finding against fair use), and the other factors militated against finding fair use.</p><p></p><p>Anyway.</p><p></p><p>I'm really not sure what you're trying to say, Treebore, but this is a fairly cut-and-dry example of a case that teaches the application of the fair use doctrine. It also shows quite plainly that protectible expression can have a fairly broad sweep - especially when you take derivative works into account.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Copyright protects more than that, as I've shown above (and could show via more illustrations). And fair use is absolutely not cut-and-dry. Now, on the other hand, if he was commenting on the fact that certain things simply cannot be copyrighted, he's closer to the mark: "roll 1d20, add a modifier, and hit a target score" absolutely cannot be copyrighted.</p><p></p><p>It's possible to use the nuts and bolts of the system and rewrite all of the "fluff," and that would take you out of copyright, but I think it's inapt to say that merely changing the presentation and layout is enough: you'd need to change the explanations, the vocabulary, and basically graft an entirely new system onto the numbers.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="yogipsu, post: 4383985, member: 19971"] One doesn't need to bring up caselaw to refute your assertions that copyright protects nothing more than word-for-word (or bit-for-bit) copying: the Copyright Act itself does that. Wulf Ratbane is entirely correct: your advice is not only incorrect, as it seems to be based on a somewhat incomplete understanding of copyright law (e.g., you appear to be referencing Castle Rock Ent. v. Carol Pub. Group and another case that I can't place). I'd be happy to explain further, but let me first refute your use of the Seinfeld case. In [i]Castle Rock[/i], the defendant published a Seinfeld trivia book. The owners of the Seinfeld IP sued for copyright infringement, and the appeals court determined that defendant had misappropriated the IP. The defendant then raised a fair use defense, which was rejected. Any student of fair use knows that it turns on four elements: (1) the purpose and character of the work, (2) the nature of the copyrighted work, (3) the amount and substantiality used, and (4) the effect the copying has on the market of the work. Basically, the trivia book was commercial (which weighs against, but does not mandate, finding against fair use), and the other factors militated against finding fair use. Anyway. I'm really not sure what you're trying to say, Treebore, but this is a fairly cut-and-dry example of a case that teaches the application of the fair use doctrine. It also shows quite plainly that protectible expression can have a fairly broad sweep - especially when you take derivative works into account. Copyright protects more than that, as I've shown above (and could show via more illustrations). And fair use is absolutely not cut-and-dry. Now, on the other hand, if he was commenting on the fact that certain things simply cannot be copyrighted, he's closer to the mark: "roll 1d20, add a modifier, and hit a target score" absolutely cannot be copyrighted. It's possible to use the nuts and bolts of the system and rewrite all of the "fluff," and that would take you out of copyright, but I think it's inapt to say that merely changing the presentation and layout is enough: you'd need to change the explanations, the vocabulary, and basically graft an entirely new system onto the numbers. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Green Ronin not signing GSL (Forked Thread: Doing the GSL. Who?)
Top