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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 4032156" data-attributes="member: 15538">Unfortunately, you're wrong. "Ownership" mostly and usually applies to the right to possess and use an object. When applied to intellectual property, ownership is a metaphor. For instance, if I "own" idea, you can't deprive me of it. Intellectual properties are a restriction on how information is used, whereas traditional ownership is the ability to use something. I can't save IP, nor do am I deprived of anything if I share it or give away the information. Furthermore, someone else could have the same idea somewhere else, and neither one of us would be the poorer for it. So intellectual property has some distinct differences from ordinary ownership. What you "own" is an economic prerogative, not the idea itself. So much for normal standards.Now, let's hit the list. Legally, they don't own the ideas behind 4e. First of all, that's pretty much impossible. You might be able to patent some specific game inventions, but AFAIK there's not a single thing patentable about 4e. You can find prior art of absolutely everything I've seen. Second of all, 4e did not arise in a vacuum. A lot of D&D was actually based on things created by other people, some of whom weren't even compensated. Armor Class was a concept adapted from wargames, ents and orcs were taken from Tolkien, Law/Chaos from Moorcock, etc. Morally, it depends on your morals. Ethically is another way of saying morally. I don't consider owning an idea to be within the realm of possibility, so there are no ethical dimensions to that "ownership." What do we owe to the creators of 4e? Are we not to profit from their work? They have profited from the work of others. Do we not have the right to create a competing product? In the US, we have a right to create a competing product. In the end, 4e is a stack of books. WotC no more owns the ideas in those books than R.A.Salvatore owns the idea of a misunderstood outsider, or Margaret Weis owns the idea of a gathering army of evil, or some chef owns the idea of a pie crust. Moreover, 4e is a set of instructions for playing a game, and the idea that some company could own the form of game you play in your house is just ridiculous. That would be like claiming that because I created a recipe for Mexican omelettes, you cannot also create a recipe for Mexican omelettes.</blockquote>

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