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<blockquote data-quote="Brown Jenkin" data-source="post: 314956" data-attributes="member: 2572">I have been bothered recently by what seems to me an unsupportable position by WotC to stamp out distribution of PCGen lst files while allowing the same information to be freely traded on the Internet in E-Tools formats. Maybe someone with a better understanding of the law can help me understand this.&nbsp; This is exactly the same information but formatted in different file types.&nbsp; An alternate example of this to me is if an author in order to protect his work from copyright infringement blocked free trading of his work as Word documents, but then at the same time encouraged the same people to freely trade the exact same work as a WordPerfect document.&nbsp; By not only allowing others to freely swap his IP, but additionally actively encouraging it, I don’t see how he can then argue that the exact same info can’t treated the same way in a different format. The IP is EXACTLY the same. In order to claim rights to their IP don’t they need to actively defend it. By actively encouraging and supporting the free trade of this IP in any manner aren’t they giving up their rights to it?&nbsp; Especially as long as the original authors are properly credited, I don’t understand why I can’t use this same information in a different file format. Another example of this would seem to me is if WotC said anyone could copy and reprint hardcopies of their books and then give them away for free, but only if they used the Times New Roman font but not any other font. Note: I am in no way officially or unofficially associated with PCGen in any way other than as a long time user of the program.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brown Jenkin, post: 314956, member: 2572"] I have been bothered recently by what seems to me an unsupportable position by WotC to stamp out distribution of PCGen lst files while allowing the same information to be freely traded on the Internet in E-Tools formats. Maybe someone with a better understanding of the law can help me understand this. This is exactly the same information but formatted in different file types. An alternate example of this to me is if an author in order to protect his work from copyright infringement blocked free trading of his work as Word documents, but then at the same time encouraged the same people to freely trade the exact same work as a WordPerfect document. By not only allowing others to freely swap his IP, but additionally actively encouraging it, I don’t see how he can then argue that the exact same info can’t treated the same way in a different format. The IP is EXACTLY the same. In order to claim rights to their IP don’t they need to actively defend it. By actively encouraging and supporting the free trade of this IP in any manner aren’t they giving up their rights to it? Especially as long as the original authors are properly credited, I don’t understand why I can’t use this same information in a different file format. Another example of this would seem to me is if WotC said anyone could copy and reprint hardcopies of their books and then give them away for free, but only if they used the Times New Roman font but not any other font. Note: I am in no way officially or unofficially associated with PCGen in any way other than as a long time user of the program. [/QUOTE]

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