There Was a Magic: The Gathering RPG Being Developed at WotC And You Can Bid On The Draft For Charity

Morrus · Wednesday at 4:38 PM

darjr said:
Some crypto folks flush with scammed cash bought the physical copy of Jodorowsky Dune Manuscript that was the proposed movie bible. Full of art and prose etc. They thought it gave them the right to publish it and make the movie.

Oh dear. I assume that didn’t work out well!

darjr · Wednesday at 4:48 PM

Morrus said:
Oh dear. I assume that didn’t work out well!

I suppose it depends, I think the nft scammers probably did ok, financially.

Whoever controls the DAO, controls the book: The strange tale of Jodorowsky’s Dune

Please gather around, and listen to this cautionary tale of schadenfreude and greed. This is not a tale for the faint of heart; it involves a cabal of crypto-enthusiasts working on a decentralised …

www.technollama.co.uk

Koloth · Wednesday at 4:49 PM

For all the folks wondering about copyright and distribution rights for whoever buys this, don't see how it is much different then walking into a used book store and buying a PHB or Core book. Owning the physical copy of a PHB doesn't legally allow you to make and distribute copies or produce the enclosed game. Why should this be any different? It is basically a PHB for Manastorm, a a game that hasn't been published, so far.

Tigris · Wednesday at 5:05 PM

Koloth said:
For all the folks wondering about copyright and distribution rights for whoever buys this, don't see how it is much different then walking into a used book store and buying a PHB or Core book. Owning the physical copy of a PHB doesn't legally allow you to make and distribute copies or produce the enclosed game. Why should this be any different? It is basically a PHB for Manastorm, a a game that hasn't been published, so far.

There is actually a huge difference. If I sell a copy of a book which can also be bought by the owner then if someone buys the book from me instead of the other person, the other person has an actual financial loss.

If I sell a copy of a book which you cant buy anywhere else, no one has any financial loss.

Also some laws (trademarks in certain places) work in a way that if you havent used it for a while you lose it "use it or lose it".

I know this is not the case for copyrights and patents but boy would I prefer it that way.

Morrus · Wednesday at 5:24 PM

Koloth said:
Why should this be any different?

You are correct. It isn't any different.

Omega Probe · Wednesday at 7:26 PM

Tigris said:
There is actually a huge difference. If I sell a copy of a book which can also be bought by the owner then if someone buys the book from me instead of the other person, the other person has an actual financial loss.

If I sell a copy of a book which you cant buy anywhere else, no one has any financial loss.

Financial loss doesn't come into play in copyright distribution and redistribution rights. You can't distribute copies of a copyrighted work, for profit or for free, regardless of financial damage, unless you have permission from the copyright holders. That's what copyright exists for, to control who has the right to do exactly that.

Tigris said:
Also some laws (trademarks in certain places) work in a way that if you havent used it for a while you lose it "use it or lose it".

I know this is not the case for copyrights and patents but boy would I prefer it that way.

You said it yourself. Trademarks are lost if they're not in use after a while, but copyright lasts for literal decades, depending on the country. In the US, it's 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whatever is shortest.

IP law can get very messy and complicated around the edges, but this situation is pretty basic: it's a copyrighted work, and you can't distribute copies of it without the IP holder's permission.

Deset Gled · Wednesday at 7:51 PM

Omega Probe said:
IP law can get very messy and complicated around the edges, but this situation is pretty basic: it's a copyrighted work, and you can't distribute copies of it without the IP holder's permission.

The complicated part is that people don't want it to work that way, they just want a copy of the game.

When the facts aren't on your side, pound the law. If the law isn't on your side, pound the facts. If neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound the table. Sometimes I wonder why we even put that table there.

Morrus · Wednesday at 8:17 PM

Deset Gled said:
The complicated part is that people don't want it to work that way, they just want a copy of the game.

People want other peoples’ stuff. Sure.

But society chooses to balance that against the rights of those who own things. Whether that’s your car or your IP.

Juomari Veren · Wednesday at 9:53 PM

Morrus said:
I'll point out to everyone reading this who might be inclined to view this as advice that I'm pretty sure that Juomari Veren is not a lawyer; and he most certainly is not your lawyer. Buying a physical copy of a book does not give you the right to distribute it (the literal 'copyright') which still resides in the IP owner. Should you be tempted to do such a thing, please talk to a lawyer first.

Hey, I could be somebody's lawyer if they wanted me to be! Only job I won't try is food service.

Autumnal · Thursday at 3:47 AM

My experience with unpublished work is that author, I retain copyright on my text until the publisher pays for it. If there’s never a kill fee or anything else, the text remains mine. But I don’t get any kind of license to use trademark terms, nor any words that have been published and are under their corporate copyright, nor any images. It’s never yet been worth my while, given available productive capacity, to prepare for the public a properly cleaned up version of any work I have in that status, but I could.

Someone would have to go ask Jonathan if the Magic RPG manuscript is in that state. And even if WotC did pay some on it, there are a variety of ways it may still be sellable. I trust Jonathan not be setting himself up fo a hosing.