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Frylock's Gaming & Geekery Challenges WotC's Copyright Claims
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<blockquote data-quote="Deleted member 7015506" data-source="post: 7789094"><p>[USER=1]@Morrus[/USER]</p><p></p><p>Seems like I messed up on correctly identifying IP and PI there. But I think I get the difference now: While IP is a kind of synonym for “genuine creativity”, PI is something more vague (at least I get that impression). I googled PI a bit (not too deep) and found that:</p><p></p><p>Brand Identity:</p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.thebalancesmb.com/brand-identity-and-marketing-2295442[/URL]</p><p></p><p>Product Identity:</p><p><a href="https://simplicable.com/new/product-identity" target="_blank">What is Product Identity?</a> </p><p></p><p> And I found that for defining IP:</p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/[/URL]</p><p></p><p>Not that I am a lawyer in any way or these links may be the final word on the subject, but I believe a halfway good american lawyer can construct out of that a “prove”, that the problem we discuss here is violating copyright in one way or the other.</p><p></p><p>Now I don´t know how IP/PI/copyright laws and regulations interact with each other, but I have the subjective impression, that Fyrlocks claim is on very thin ice even regarding US courts.</p><p></p><p>[USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER]</p><p></p><p>I agree with you, that the basic intention of the whole affair is obscure at least. If I assume, that the copyright tag placed by Fyrlock is aimed for his altered/modified stat block “design”, then I have no clue, if such a modification is legally safe according to US law and justifies the copyright tag he placed underneath it.</p><p></p><p>Now if I take your remark about Fyrlocks stand against the OGL into account, I have to ask myself what IP rights are asserted this way by WotC and which are denied to the people publishing under that license? AFAIK the SRD is pretty wide spread/covers a great deal of the game and as I understand the OGL it is there to ensure, that the published material is not misused by others for one reason or another (one of the reasons I guess). The only “valid” point I can see is, that once you publish something under the OGL, others also have the right to use that material for their products (which isn´t actually bad IMHO). Or is he really questioning the genuine nature of tons of material TSR/WotC published? </p><p></p><p>Personally I think Rian Dancey spearheaded for it, since he wanted to ensure that D&D is not going into oblivion if WotC would not be happy with their new purchase and resell it again (just like Umbran said, beat me for that - writing my posts on a texteditor, sorry). Fortunately things went different and the game is bigger than ever. </p><p></p><p>[USER=177]@Umbran[/USER]</p><p></p><p>I hope, that your last statement holds true regarding section 9 of the OGL, but I know how contract laws and legal disputes can come out (had some of those in the past and I always drew the shorter straw despite so called “written law”). Never know what a US court is deciding if WotC would really enforce to withdraw/revoke the OGL. A probable valid argument for a withdrawing of the OGL would be the financial damage WotC is suffering through “lost” sales that went into the OSR market.</p><p></p><p>Subjectively spoken I fear that you might be right and WotC can pull the plug on the OGL. </p><p></p><p>Sorry for derailing the discussion with my OGL comments and questions.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Deleted member 7015506, post: 7789094"] [USER=1]@Morrus[/USER] Seems like I messed up on correctly identifying IP and PI there. But I think I get the difference now: While IP is a kind of synonym for “genuine creativity”, PI is something more vague (at least I get that impression). I googled PI a bit (not too deep) and found that: Brand Identity: [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.thebalancesmb.com/brand-identity-and-marketing-2295442[/URL] Product Identity: [URL="https://simplicable.com/new/product-identity"]What is Product Identity?[/URL] And I found that for defining IP: [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/[/URL] Not that I am a lawyer in any way or these links may be the final word on the subject, but I believe a halfway good american lawyer can construct out of that a “prove”, that the problem we discuss here is violating copyright in one way or the other. Now I don´t know how IP/PI/copyright laws and regulations interact with each other, but I have the subjective impression, that Fyrlocks claim is on very thin ice even regarding US courts. [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] I agree with you, that the basic intention of the whole affair is obscure at least. If I assume, that the copyright tag placed by Fyrlock is aimed for his altered/modified stat block “design”, then I have no clue, if such a modification is legally safe according to US law and justifies the copyright tag he placed underneath it. Now if I take your remark about Fyrlocks stand against the OGL into account, I have to ask myself what IP rights are asserted this way by WotC and which are denied to the people publishing under that license? AFAIK the SRD is pretty wide spread/covers a great deal of the game and as I understand the OGL it is there to ensure, that the published material is not misused by others for one reason or another (one of the reasons I guess). The only “valid” point I can see is, that once you publish something under the OGL, others also have the right to use that material for their products (which isn´t actually bad IMHO). Or is he really questioning the genuine nature of tons of material TSR/WotC published? Personally I think Rian Dancey spearheaded for it, since he wanted to ensure that D&D is not going into oblivion if WotC would not be happy with their new purchase and resell it again (just like Umbran said, beat me for that - writing my posts on a texteditor, sorry). Fortunately things went different and the game is bigger than ever. [USER=177]@Umbran[/USER] I hope, that your last statement holds true regarding section 9 of the OGL, but I know how contract laws and legal disputes can come out (had some of those in the past and I always drew the shorter straw despite so called “written law”). Never know what a US court is deciding if WotC would really enforce to withdraw/revoke the OGL. A probable valid argument for a withdrawing of the OGL would be the financial damage WotC is suffering through “lost” sales that went into the OSR market. Subjectively spoken I fear that you might be right and WotC can pull the plug on the OGL. Sorry for derailing the discussion with my OGL comments and questions. [/QUOTE]
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