FantasyGrounds Takes Legal Action Against WotC

[Darrin Drader]

Posting this had nothing to do with revenge over the GSL, it was just a new discovery that I hadn't previously heard about and thought was interesting.

 

[rvalle]

Cursed double post!

rv

 

[rvalle]

Lets see...

Is the complainant based in Finland?

Yes, Smiteworks is based in Finland and they are the creators of Fantasy Grounds.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought a cease and desist, wasn't the same as suing someone?

I'm not sure. But on the FG boards one of the Smiteworks guys said the sent a Cease and Desist order.

Posting this had nothing to do with revenge over the GSL, it was just a new discovery that I hadn't previously heard about and thought was interesting.

Sorry Darrin I didn't mean you. I was responding to someone up thread about Smiteworks doing this as revenge for the GSL.

rv

 

[Mark]

It is just a mock up, they have replaced the image with one from the alpha version of the software

You've used the Alpha version?

 

[Lizard]

They don't look pretty much the same...they are identical down to the glints of lighting...that's not parallel development, that's outright stealing the graphics...you cannot convince me that whoever is making dice for DDI just happened to make them look exactly like their nearest competitors (for that kind of product anyway) dice down to the glints of light.

That said, I doubt it's something that WotC would have approved of as a company...I think a lazy graphic designer is going to to be eating a crap sandwich soon.

It's quite possible they are both using the same 3d modeler and shader. Given that, the dice will look identical, even if designed independantly. A cube is a cube; give two people a 3d program and say "Design a cube using surface X and lighting Y", and you'll get two identical cubes.

 

[Xorn]

Xorn- that depends what your character sheet has in it. If you've got a drop down menu that lets you select between Lengthily-Named Copyrightable Strike and Totally Trademarkable Tactical Thwack, you might have a problem.

As long as it's just blank fields with labels, you can do math with the numbers in those fields all you like.

That's from my first post, I think you missed that. I can make a character sheet for FG2 that has:

Weapon | Stat | vs Defense | +Prof | Total Bonus | Damage

Then put blanks below those. As long as the user has to type the weapon name, the stat to use (though it will reference a bonus entered elsewhere by the user), the defense it's aimed at, the proficiency bonus (again the user must type this, I can't have a lookup table), a calculated total attack bonus (adding up numbers entered by the user) and the damage dice are put in by the player--

I've broken no copyrights.

 

[JDJblatherings]

It's quite possible they are both using the same 3d modeler and shader. Given that, the dice will look identical, even if designed independantly. A cube is a cube; give two people a 3d program and say "Design a cube using surface X and lighting Y", and you'll get two identical cubes.

You will most likely get two different cubes. The camera type, the camera angle and position of th ecube will all help the result be two different cubes.

 

[Maggan]

So are they suing or not? Cause if they are, this is sensational. If they aren't, then it's not so sensational.

/M

 

[Grazzt]

It's quite possible they are both using the same 3d modeler and shader. Given that, the dice will look identical, even if designed independantly. A cube is a cube; give two people a 3d program and say "Design a cube using surface X and lighting Y", and you'll get two identical cubes.

The same color dice? And all in the same exact order with the exact same numbers showing?

 

[JDJblatherings]

The same color dice? And all in the same exact order with the exact same numbers showing?

Not a chance really.