Excerpt: City of Brass

[Nahat Anoj]

Regarding which city is a better trade hub than the other, I think all major cities can be considered to be major trade hubs. Places like New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, or Hong Kong are all major trade hubs, but they have different characters and are known for different things.

In 4e, the City of Brass is the oldest city in Creation. For whatever reason, it probably emerged as a major trade hub early on in its history and became known for being a place where you could get anything. That reputation stuck and is maintained to the present times, just like how LA will probably always be associated with movies or how Paris will be always be associated with fashion. But other things go on in the City of Brass, just as they do in real world cities.

As far as Sigil goes, I don't know what it's fluff will be in 4e. It will be a place with portals to many planes, but even though it might be a transportation hub it may not focus on trade. Perhaps it'll be the ultimate neutral ground, where various factions from across the planes can go and discuss grievances, indulge in intrigues, and wage secret wars.
Like New York or Brussels, cities that house large, multinational organizations such as the UN or EU, Sigil may be known as an eclectic "planar" city and would be a natural port of call for diplomats and other dignitaries.

But while Sigil might be known for "diplomacy," as a major transportation hub a lot of trade will happen there. It's just that trade is not what the city is immediately associated - I don't associate New York with, say, tech industry, but tech industry happens there. When planar travellers in the D&D planes think "Where can I can get [forbidden trinket x]?", the first place they think of is the City of Brass, just because that's what the City of Brass has been about since time immemorial.

 

[pemerton]

Copyright infringement only occurs when you use the work of someone else. IE you copy them word for word.

<SNIP>

there is no copyright infringement unless one directly copied the work of the other, word for word

This is not true. When the authors of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" sued Dan Brown for infrining their copyright via his book "The DaVinci Code" they were not alleging (what is obviously not the case) that he had copied their earlier book word for word.

 

[Treebore]

This is not true. When the authors of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" sued Dan Brown for infrining their copyright via his book "The DaVinci Code" they were not alleging (what is obviously not the case) that he had copied their earlier book word for word.

That was under English Law, not US Law.

Edit: Plus the law suit was unsuccessful and yes they did claim the DaVinci Code copied their work. However the English court disagreed and the suit failed.

 

[Maggan]

This is not true. When the authors of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" sued Dan Brown for infrining their copyright via his book "The DaVinci Code" they were not alleging (what is obviously not the case) that he had copied their earlier book word for word.

Did they win or lose?

/M

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Did they win or lose?

/M

Lost

 

[Grazzt]

Otherwise it's somewhat interesting that the original author (RJK) yanks his work from them and they somehow still decide to contract with new authors and create the product. Other than the legal groundwork being lain, the only other explanation I can think of is that there was a substantial amount of maps/artwork or whatever (though I wonder if such things ever constitute a major fraction of the cost of production).

RJK didnt yank his work from us at all. The whole tale is somewhere on the NG forums (but basically amounts to RJK had a deadline for a book; it wasn't CoB. He failed said deadline. Book wasn't even written basically; association with RJK was nullified); but definitely wasn't RJK pulling his work from us. And no, no artwork, maps or anything of the kind were done beforehand. Casey and I started our City of Brass project from the ground up (with ideas from Clark; for example, Clark gave me and Case a basic outline of what he wanted, such as the Codex, and said "do it"...and we did). Our vision of CoB had nothing at all to do with RJK's vision of CoB; except maybe that both involve efreet and the Plane of Fire

And again, there is AFAIK an absence of any other product from the milieu in question being published by the company with the "Old School feel". If legal issues weren't involved (and I haven't seen anything where you have directly said that anyway) then why else would it be? Why would a company with "Old School" inclinations pass up the chance to create a Nine Hells boxed set? Or a Gehenna module? Especially when they can so quickly turn around and create a City of Brass with what appears to be short notice (and the probability of facing a competing product from RJK).

Clark wanted to do CoB. He didn't wanna do the Nine Hells, the Abyss, etc. (though I'd love to do something on Pandemonium; always my favorite plane from 1e).

 

[pemerton]

Did they win or lose?

/M

Not really relevant to the point - if what was required was word for word copying, then the suit would never have been initiated, or (if it had) would have been struck out on an application for summary judgement.

The fact that the court actually entertained the suit is sufficient to show that word for word copying is not a necessary element of copyright infringement.

 

[Scribble]

Not really relevant to the point - if what was required was word for word copying, then the suit would never have been initiated, or (if it had) would have been struck out on an application for summary judgement.

The fact that the court actually entertained the suit is sufficient to show that word for word copying is not a necessary element of copyright infringement.

White Wolf vrs Sony?

 

[Treebore]

Not really relevant to the point - if what was required was word for word copying, then the suit would never have been initiated, or (if it had) would have been struck out on an application for summary judgement.

The fact that the court actually entertained the suit is sufficient to show that word for word copying is not a necessary element of copyright infringement.

The most relevant point is they lost. No copyright infringement. The reason it went to court is their claim of infringement was rather unique, so it went to court to establish precedence just as much as to determine liability.

They still lost. Precedence, in England, is set. Plus England has different laws, and I never read/studied/researched those. I have been told they are largely the same as US laws, but do have important differences.

 

[Treebore]

White Wolf vrs Sony?

Do you even know what the results of that lawsuit were? I know I have not noticed any credit given to WW in the credits. Guess I'll have to look for them next time I watch them.