Say you find something nifty on the boards...

[Mark]

I went so far as to suggest an option for Opening Game Content in this thread (and sent an email) -

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=68525

Unfortunately this individual "disappeared" that very day and hasn't posted again since then. Very strange...

 

[jmucchiello]

I went so far as to suggest an option for Opening Game Content in this thread (and sent an email) -

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=68525

Unfortunately this individual "disappeared" that very day and hasn't posted again since then. Very strange...

You should make an explicit note in your post that you are not the copyright holder and that your OGL copy is an example of how the real copyright holder could do so. As it stands now, it would be easy for someone to think the info in the thread is OGC.

I've had similar problem in a House Rules thread. I even had one of the authors post a statement like "Oh, you want my permission? " and then never post again. What the heck did the smiley mean? That's why I don't go near House Rules any more.

 

[Mark]

You should make an explicit note in your post that you are not the copyright holder and that your OGL copy is an example of how the real copyright holder could do so. As it stands now, it would be easy for someone to think the info in the thread is OGC.

I've had similar problem in a House Rules thread. I even had one of the authors post a statement like "Oh, you want my permission? " and then never post again. What the heck did the smiley mean? That's why I don't go near House Rules any more.

Perhaps... How's this?

(Warning - Not valid unless adopted by Sabaron!)

 

[Maraxle]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that there's a lot of situations where you could theoretically use info from the boards without permission or license. For example, simply put, you cannot copyright an idea. So if I say, "Wouldn't it be cool if all wizards had three arms?", you can make a book completely dedicated to three-armed wizards whether I give you permission or not. I don't own the idea of three-armed wizards. I could potentially trademark the specific phrase, "Wouldn't it be cool if all wizards had three arms?", but that's about it. Also, in the ship rules example that Mark gave, as long as you changed the description paragraphs, I would think you would be safe. Since the rest of the post is a derivative of WotC's OGC stat block format, it is OGC by nature, since you can't close that open format, and you can't copyright the stats.

 

[Vaxalon]

No, I'm talking about more fully-formed works.

What I have in front of me right now is Gez's "wizard's staff" material, including a magic item and seven feats.

 

[Morrus]

These boards are merely a medium for conversation. You can liken them to the bar where you talk to your friends; the telephone line which you use to speak to your mother. In these cases, the bar and the telephone company have no connection with what you say; and the boards here have nothing to do with what you post.

Whether or not there's any legal ramifications or issues to what an individual says, or whether or not permission would be required from that person (I'll leave that to more qualified people to discuss), you don't need to cite EN World anywhere.