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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spell" data-source="post: 4016798" data-attributes="member: 19718">that's for you to prove, if you think you have a case.and that's for them to argue, if they have a clear conscience.i think that at the base of what we are discussing here lies a question as old as civilization: what are laws for?i think there will be some agreement that original idea (and the one that is still largely embraced today) is that laws are there to protect anyone from abuses. abuses coming from people more powerful than him and abuses coming from people less powerful that could nevertheless get away with unfair practices because of the way the society is at a given moment.a good and fair law shouldn't substitute one abuse with another.the copyright laws are perfectly fine when they protect someone's IP from being stole. it's good when it's my IP and it's good when it's WotC or Sony's.the copyright laws (just like any other law) are not fine anymore when (among other significantly more unfair practices by other companies that have nothing to do with this discussion) WotC can claim that they can reproduce my IP just because i posted on their forums. it doesn't matter that i agreed to a set of rules, because, as someone pointed out, there is no way that WotC can guarantee that it was *me* agreeing. (as opposed to a relative, or to a friend).let's say that i "steal" my brother's idea on the next cool class, and i published it on the forums. something similar is published by WotC and my brother would want to sue. what is stopping him? what is stopping him to sue WotC *and* me and to settle out of court with me for a penny, while pursuing the case with Wizards?if we were talking about a written permission with my signature on it, then there would be no debate. but i would think that simply clicking on a button is a very thin legal base on which basing a defence in court.again, as it has been stated before, it's the principle that is upsetting, not the real possibility of it happening. because it might not happen today, or tomorrow. but maybe in ten years it could. and then, after ten years, it would be significantly more difficut to change the principle back to what it was before.did you steal Dragon's idea? i doubt it. what would have happened if you had refused to remove the class? probably you would have got kicked out of those forums. do you think it's fair that your free and legitimate idea couldn't circulate because someone was afraid that WotC *might* have sued? even when WotC didn't even send anything that could give the impression that they were unhappy about your post?</blockquote>

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