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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 9427298" data-attributes="member: 6680772">The GDW lawsuit was actually mentioned in the podcast. Specifically, that Gygax used D&D spells with just their names removed. I don't recall who was saying it (Steve Winter, I think?) but they seemed to think the lawsuit was justified.As for Mayfair Games, the first suit brought by TSR against Mayfair Games was in 1984, under the purview of its CEO at the time, one [checks notes] Gary Gygax. When it looked like they might not win, TSR settled for the license agreement that was the subject of the second suit. A license agreement which, <a href="https://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/copyright/cases/tsr_vs_mayfair.html" target="_blank">it was found</a>, had been breached.So we have two instances of TSR, under Williams, justifiably pressing their legal rights. But of course, in that grand narrative that's been told over the years, this was just Williams harassing Gygax. Even though he did the same thing when he was in charge of TSR.Against all that, we have what <a href="https://grognard.com/zines/so/so43.txt" target="_blank">TSR did to SPI</a> in 1982, under Gygax and the Blumes. With TSR ascendant thanks to the D&D fad, they loaned a struggling SPI $400,000, with SPI's IP as collateral. Two weeks later, they called for the loan to be repaid, and when it naturally could not be, TSR claimed SPI's assets...but not its liabilities. So the readers who had lifetime subscriptions to SPI's Strategy & Tactics were SOL.But, Gygax has gotten a pass for this, while Williams has been vilified for TSR doing the same thing it had always done.</blockquote>

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