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<blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 7797511" data-attributes="member: 463">To be clear, WoTC certainly owns a copyright in pages 158-161 of the Monster Manual, and adaptations/derivative works thereof. They may not own copyright in the original White Dwarf text (&amp; picture) describing the Githyanki, this will depend on the contracts between Charles Stross (UK), Games Workshop (UK), and TSR or TSR UK. Copyrights are not free standing concepts like patents or Trademarks, certainly not in English Law, and in the circumstances effecting a successful transfer of (c) in the original published work from Stross to TSR under the pre-1988 Copyright law would have&nbsp; been very tricky. Especially as Stross still held full copyright at time of publication (GW only received a licence to print and reprint once, under their own standard form contract of the era, which I saw when I submitted something to them). And I suspect that TSR was less than fully aware of the intricacies of UK copyright law.So I suspect it is likely that one could create work derived from the original appearance of the Githyanki and that this would only risk infringing Stross' copyright as author. But this depends on the contracts. NB however if you use the OGL then you cannot do this because Githyanki are 'PI', and the OGL contract says you agree not to use WoTC-designated PI.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="S'mon, post: 7797511, member: 463"] To be clear, WoTC certainly owns a copyright in pages 158-161 of the Monster Manual, and adaptations/derivative works thereof. They may not own copyright in the original White Dwarf text (& picture) describing the Githyanki, this will depend on the contracts between Charles Stross (UK), Games Workshop (UK), and TSR or TSR UK. Copyrights are not free standing concepts like patents or Trademarks, certainly not in English Law, and in the circumstances effecting a successful transfer of (c) in the original published work from Stross to TSR under the pre-1988 Copyright law would have been very tricky. Especially as Stross still held full copyright at time of publication (GW only received a licence to print and reprint once, under their own standard form contract of the era, which I saw when I submitted something to them). And I suspect that TSR was less than fully aware of the intricacies of UK copyright law. So I suspect it is likely that one could create work derived from the original appearance of the Githyanki and that this would only risk infringing Stross' copyright as author. But this depends on the contracts. NB however if you use the OGL then you cannot do this because Githyanki are 'PI', and the OGL contract says you agree not to use WoTC-designated PI. [/QUOTE]

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