Just got the CD with issues 1-250; What is best, IYNSHO?

[DMH]

If you liked paths of power, you should check out the Advanced Player's Manual by Green Ronin. The Eldritch Weaver class therein is basically a revamp of the paths of power.

And if you want a lot of new paths, Paths of Power (I & II) from Distant Horizon worked on the idea before GR. Most, if not all of their examples can be used directly for the Eldritch Weaver.

 

[Glyfair]

Well, that stuff can be blacked out...and my guess is that they've learned their lesson on licensing

It wasn't just KoDT, it was pretty much everything as I understand it. For some reason, back in the 70's TSR didn't get the PDF reproduction rights for all their products. Sort of like the problems Disney had with Peggy Lee because they neglected to get videotape reproduction rights to her music back in 1955. Lack of prophetic lawyers.

 

[Psion]

It wasn't just KoDT, it was pretty much everything as I understand it. For some reason, back in the 70's TSR didn't get the PDF reproduction rights for all their products. Sort of like the problems Disney had with Peggy Lee because they neglected to get videotape reproduction rights to her music back in 1955. Lack of prophetic lawyers.

True, but since then there have been court cases that set a precedent in the opposite direction WRT cd/dvd magazine compilations. Several magazines have produced compilations with no worries since then.

 

[Vocenoctum]

It wasn't just KoDT, it was pretty much everything as I understand it. For some reason, back in the 70's TSR didn't get the PDF reproduction rights for all their products.

I remember from the time, they said they didn't have reproduction rights for the articles, but they could reproduce the magazine entirely or something without problems. I guess that theory wasn't well founded?

Depending on the timeline, TSR may have not had the resources to fight a copyright lawsuit either way, and it was easily enough handled out of court, who knows.

 

[Glyfair]

I remember from the time, they said they didn't have reproduction rights for the articles, but they could reproduce the magazine entirely or something without problems.

I don't believe "they" said it, but there was some discussion when it came out that they could because putting out an "archival" version was legal. This was mostly messageboard speculation.

 

[delericho]

I don't believe "they" said it, but there was some discussion when it came out that they could because putting out an "archival" version was legal. This was mostly messageboard speculation.

The line I heard was they believed they could consider it a reprint, rather than a second publication. Since they had first publication rights, therefore, they figured they were okay.

I believe there was a court-case about a similar archive (National Geographic, perhaps?) which went against the publishers. Hence, the Archive is now out-of-print, with no hope of ever being reissued. Shame, really.

 

[Faraer]

There are many scattered one-off gems, which I think are best discovered by each reader. Apart from those, the great value of Dragon for me is seeing the development of AD&D and the World of Greyhawk by Gary Gygax, the Forgotten Realms by Ed Greenwood, and (to a lesser extent because of his less central role) Mystara by Bruce Heard.

The former would be most relevant to Castles & Crusades.

 

[woodelf]

I think there were licensing issues with the CDs (something about KoDT, maybe...?), which is why we never saw more CDs.

The bigger problem is that many (even just some?) of the articles were only bought for "first publication" rights. So, in order to reprint, TSR/WotC would need to renegotiate with all of the authors from whom they didn't buy full ownership of the article--and that's a *lot* of people. And a lot of them are probably hard or impossible to track down. Plus, that means considerable expense--the expense of finding all these people and talking to them, plus whatever they pay out for the reprint rights. Also, rumor has it that TSR didn't keep particularly great records, so even determining what rights the magazine had/has could be tricky.

The CD archive was printed under the library archive exception, wherein it is not necessary to pay anything more for archival electronic compilations of periodical publications. However, there were a series of court cases right around the time that the Dragon CD came out, whose ultimate disposition i forget--but i think it was that the exception was meant to be explicitly only for libraries--the 'library' in the name wasn't just a descriptor, it was meant to limit such archives *only* to compilations created for libraries, not for general sale. In any case, i'm pretty sure that it's not an option any more, so they'd have to pay more for a new archive [than they did for the original print rights, and than they did for the existing Dragon CDs], unless the new contracts include explicit permission for electronic reprints. And even as early as the beginning of the run in question (#251+), i'd be surprised if automatic, no-fee electronic reprint rights were part of Dragon's standard contract.

 

[Thurbane]

First thing I did when I got the CD was read all the Worry comics.

Second thing was read all the Snarf Quest comics.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

First thing I did when I got the CD was read all the Worry comics.

Second thing was read all the Snarf Quest comics.

What are the Worry comics? I assume that you mean Wormy? If not I may have to have a look at the CD's again to see if there was a series that I missed.

Snarfquest would be my second favourite comic series behind Knights of the Dinner Table. It's a pity it ended when it did. There was still a lot of things they could do with it.

Although I don't buy Dragon magazine at the moment I still check out the OotS comic whenever I come across it on the newsstand.

Olaf the Stout