Can you own an idea?

[The Sigil]

Personally, I think copyright is a good idea that has been taken too far - largely because of efforts by The Mouse.

You have hit the nail on the head, but don't discount the efforts being made by the RIAA.

The exact length something remains copyrighted can be debated, but I definitely think it should be shorter than the "life of the creator+75 years" (or is it 90 years) that current law says. Me, I think something like 30 years is more appropriate, regardless of how long the creator lives.

I agree that the exact length should be debated, but I think a compelling statistic to look at as a good "yardstick" would be "the average time it takes for a work to generate 95% of its lifetime sales" - which I have to think is under five years. After all, how many CDs older than 5 years old do you buy? How many movies do you go see older than 5 years?

I suspect the sales curve looks pretty much like a logarithimically decreasing curve, with movies decreasing fastest and books decreasing slowest (because kids are required to read them in school).

--The Sigil

 

[Morrus]

Simply put, because they would do it first and/or do it best.

Remember, Green Ronin publishing's Freeport series (the early portions of it anyway), are 100% OGC. In effect, that means that anyone can sell it themselves. Why haven't we seen an explosion of "ripoff" copies of Freeport stuff? Bastion Press's material is 100% OGC, yet I don't see "cheap ripoff" copies running around. Why not?

They were first, and they have done it best. The fact that Green Ronin and Bastion Press are both thriving, and their products are popular, despite the fact that it is legally possible to make cheap crappy copies, tells me that people ARE willing to pay for quality.

There's my counter-example to your argument, Morrus.

--The Sigil

Nah. White Wolf could easily create as nice a loking D&D as WotC. And if it were "acceptable" for them to do so, I have no doubt that they would.

But then, if WW were going to be able to do that the moment WotC released D&D, I doubt that WotC would ever have released D&D.

 

[Blacksad]

Nah. White Wolf could easily create as nice a loking D&D as WotC. And if it were "acceptable" for them to do so, I have no doubt that they would.

But then, if WW were going to be able to do that the moment WotC released D&D, I doubt that WotC would ever have released D&D.

They just needed some money and a well know title:

Everquest