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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 1559739" data-attributes="member: 19675">That is not retroactive extension or removal of something from public domain. That is recognition that copyright arises at the moment of creation, and does not depend on your (or your packaging department's) ability to remember to put that little © on your product, and that works were ERRONEOUSLY placed in public domain.  This is law, not "Simon Says."That is not the law anywhere in the world, that is a proposal.Amusingly put.  All you have to do to find out if you are right is challenge this in Court.  A court cannot, on its own motion, decide a case.  Once someone sues, then the Court can rule on the facts.The media companies had nothing to do with it.  First use, under the law, is already considered to be any use as long as it is within the term of copyright.  That is what they mean in the statutes when they say "exclusive" rights.  But they also spell this out with a list of extant uses and a catchall at the end of the statutes worded something like- "and other such forms as may be developed."There were other publishers of D&D modules dating back to 1st Ed- Judges Guild springs immediately to mind.  THAT was perfectly legal.  What they could NOT do is republish the entire set of rules with additonal material to create a different campaign or new game.  Under the D20/OGL regime, licensees can republish the entirety of the PHB with the changes that make the game different.  Look at Dragonstar, Call of Cthuhu, Wheel of Time, etc.There is a DEFINITE loss of creativity.  Look at the contemporary games to 1st Ed- ideas from those other competing games helped shape 2Ed.  Games contemporary to 2Ed shaped 3Ed.  GURPS, HERO, Palladium and Storyteller survived because they were strong sellers before D20.  They offered an alternative, not just in campaigns, but in overall gaming experience.By way of comparison, look at the 2 major forms of home computers, Apple and IBM.  In the beginning, IBM controlled 88+% of the market, Apple 5-12%, largely because IBM PCs used the same software that people used at work, wheras Apple offered something different.  But IBM didn't control its IP, whereas Apple did.  Result-Apple still clicks along at 5-12%, but IBM has no more market share than any other PC maker- IBM lost, not to Apple, but to Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.That isn't lack of support-that is a wholesale change in the character of the game of Traveller by changing it INTO D20.  Transforming the game via OGL took a game that was very different and made it into...just another D20 sci-fi game.Don't get me wrong, I thing D20 is awesome (my second favorite RPG system of all time).  But it isn't the ONLY way, or the BEST way to run an RPG.  With game designers of today not flexing their intellects to try something completely different, we are losing the ability to think about RPGs in a non-D20 way.  Why is this happening?  Because under OGL, it is next to impossible to sell a non-D20 game.  That homogenization is definitely NOT good for the creative side of game design. If a hacker had gotten a copy of Freeport before release and put it on the web in full text form, at $1.00/copy or free, the Green Ronin Freeport release could have been a financial flop.Can't happen?There were copies of the Incredible Hulk movie circulating on the net before its theatrical release.  Yes, the big green guy hadn't been CGI'd into the scenes, but anyone who wanted would have been able to watch the entire storyline from start to finish.Similarly, Prince and other artists have had album masters stolen and released as bootlegs before the bands could release their legitimate versions.  In many cases, 100K's of those albums were sold, and the subsequent legitimate releases don't sell well.It is SO much easier to steal and disseminate IP these days that some bootleggers can pump out 100K copies of an album they got a week before release.  That could be the difference between a copyright holder going Gold or going home.PS-that is why some of those infringement fines can be so high- they are aimed at the bootlegger making money from pirated IP.  The casual IP thief will not likely face that kind of fine or prison time, but it is still within the court's range of punishments.  Each case is fact sensitive, and intent and amount of infringement matter.===Spell wrote:I can respect that, but I can also add a different perspective.Metallica gets airplay because their records sell, and partly because of an illegal practice called payola.  Payola is the practice of paying DJs or higher-ups to play a particular artist's music-and it even gets down to college and internet radio stations.  Metallica probably doesn't need payola now-any station that would play their music would be crucified by fans if they DIDN'T play the latest single- but in their early days, somebody probably paid somebody something to get their first single played.MC Hammer, in his early days, sold many $100K of his work out of the trunk of his car before getting signed- it gave him leverage in his negotiations.Gigs and Merchandise are indeed where the money is for any performer- sometimes as much as $0.65 out of every dollar for some acts.But if someone just took your CDs and sold them, leaving you with a $20k bill and no way to recoup, what kind of economic state would you be in?  (Assuming you're not getting Metallica-level airplay.)PS-Michael Jackson gets $1.20/copy sold, so he can afford to spend forever in the studio.Edited to put something in quote box.</blockquote>

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