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Sure they can. Doing so has no effect on anyone's ability to use that term however, as it is in the public domain, and can thus be independently sourced by anyone. Making a PI claim over something that a publisher did not independently create is essentially pointless, but legal. Sure. Yes...

My argument (if I was WotC) would be: The decision to combine that base attack bonus, with those saving throw bonuses, with that feat progression scheme represents a copyrightable element of our work. Now, by itself, that table (even if copyright) is not going to stop anyone from cloning that...

Yes. Because I think the Creative Commons licenses are a confusing mess. One of the primary goals of the Open Gaming project was to bring clarity and sense to the field of copyright as it applies to game materials. The Creative Commons system does not do that. Instead, it creates an even...

The first Swords & Sorcery/Necromancer monster book that came out before the 3E Monster Manual I carried around the halls of Wizards of the Coast like a proud father. I did not hand out cigars, but I was sorely tempted. The signed copy of 3 Days to Kill from Atlas Games, which was one of two...

I don't think that the game system of: To hit: Roll a die, add a modifier, compare to a target value Can be protected by copyright. Nor do I think that the game system of: Increase the class linked to-hit bonuses at various intervals determined by class. <br> When that bonus exceeds a...

No, not at all. In 1999, I envisioned the OGF as a resource to push for adoption of the OGL and the overall "concept" of openness as it related to games. I believed at the time that the OGL would be used by a small community of fan publishers mostly writing adventure content, and perhaps...

I believe that when, and if, a modern RPG case is ever litigated over copyright issues, that case will write all-new law, creating a whole new category of copyright protections. It will have the same kind of impact that the software copyright litigation did. The courts have never seen anything...

There's theory, and there's practice. In theory I would have liked to have seen a much more aggressive use of OGC in D&D products, because I think that feeds the idea "pump" (the more likely someone thinks their work is to become "Dungeons & Dragons", the more likely they may be to make the...

I think that projects like OSRIC are very interesting, and I wish there were a smoother/easier way to facilitate them within the structure of the OGL, but there is not, barring a massive content release from Wizards of the Coast. Speaking from direct personal experience (as the original creator...

I can honestly say that after looking at a very early OSRIC draft, I never returned to the material. If the tables in the finished version of OSRIC are materially different than those in AD&D, then they're probably* ok. Yes, and no. If a table is generated by a simple linear equation, then...

In The Thread That Will Not Be Named, a couple of people asked questions I'd like to try to answer. Goblinoid Games asked: I have problems with OSRIC. I believe that some of the content in OSRIC is copyrightable, and that it has not been shared by WotC via the OGL. Specifically, I will...

Yup, looks like an infringing work to me. You've got problems, bub. Ryan

How exciting! You're making an RPG with game technology circa 1975. You've got a game with characters, stats that define the characters, a mechanism for resolving conflict between characters, and a mechanism for determining the success or failure of actions the characters take. What makes...

First: Let us separate the OGL (which is a license) from the SRD (which is content). When people publish material using the SRD base, it enhances the value of the D&D brand by increasing the value of the game to all the people who play it. The more "stuff" people have to use with D&D, the...

On first reading, the copyright office's opinion on how copyright law would be applied to a game appears to be quite definitive. The issue is much less clear cut than it first appears. When the copyright office uses the term "game", they do so in an undefined manner. I suspect that this...

Assume the combined D&D business generates Hasbro $40 million a year in revenue. (tabletop RPGs, novels, computer license royalties, & mass media license royalties). Assume that revenue generates a 10% after tax profit ($4 million). Assume Hasbro's P/E (that's stock price to trailing earnings...

It is not. I know for a fact that at least two firm, reasonable offers at valuations in the eight digit range (and the significant digit was not a '1' or a '2') were made by parties with more than enough capital to close the transaction, and that both were rejected. Hasbro & WotC consider D&D...

No, that's an unrelated topic. By "new game" I mean "a whole new game platform, unlike anything we've seen before". Yes. I think that WotC is moving pieces on the chessboard in preparation for a 4th Edition announcement, and I expect that there will be a big electronic component of whatever...

I've updated my blog: http://web.mac.com/rsdancey/iWeb/RSDanceyBlog/Blog/8B285E15-19B7-45F1-8B5A-DE48E4EFD782.html Happy to entertain responses here or there. Ryan

I have no idea where that URL came from. Here's the right one: http://www.rampant-books.com/mgt_amazon_sales_rank.htm Ryan