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<blockquote data-quote="Archimedes" data-source="post: 319654" data-attributes="member: 5281">Once more I'll answer your question, though I don't know why you weren't happy with the answer I gave previously.An author of a work holds copyright until 70 years after his death. Somebody that commissions a work for hire holds that copyright for 120 years.A copyright holder can allow or disallow copying on a whim.&nbsp; There's no way they lose that copyright my failing to defend it.Others have stated that you can't copyright a system.&nbsp; This is true, because systems are covered by patent law.Trademarks are a different matter.&nbsp; These are meant to identify and differentiate products or services and to protect a company's &quot;good name&quot; from competitors using that trademark for competing products or services.Trademarks must be vigorously defended or you lose them!&nbsp; Obviously WotC hold trademarks on Dungeons &amp; Dragons and D20.This current issue with PCGen stems from them going to WotC and asking to use their D20 TRADEMARK.&nbsp; PCGen will have to follow their guidelines on this whether it has anything to do with copyright or not.&nbsp; I don't think it has anything to do with e-tools either, because the PCGen gang initiated this whole thing!Intellectual Property is a grouping for Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents, and Trade Secrets.&nbsp; All four of these are covered by different sets of law, so discussing this issue using that term is partly to blame for all this confusion.Sam</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Archimedes, post: 319654, member: 5281"] Once more I'll answer your question, though I don't know why you weren't happy with the answer I gave previously. An author of a work holds copyright until 70 years after his death. Somebody that commissions a work for hire holds that copyright for 120 years. A copyright holder can allow or disallow copying on a whim. There's no way they lose that copyright my failing to defend it. Others have stated that you can't copyright a system. This is true, because systems are covered by patent law. Trademarks are a different matter. These are meant to identify and differentiate products or services and to protect a company's "good name" from competitors using that trademark for competing products or services. Trademarks must be vigorously defended or you lose them! Obviously WotC hold trademarks on Dungeons & Dragons and D20. This current issue with PCGen stems from them going to WotC and asking to use their D20 TRADEMARK. PCGen will have to follow their guidelines on this whether it has anything to do with copyright or not. I don't think it has anything to do with e-tools either, because the PCGen gang initiated this whole thing! Intellectual Property is a grouping for Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents, and Trade Secrets. All four of these are covered by different sets of law, so discussing this issue using that term is partly to blame for all this confusion. Sam [/QUOTE]

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