So, the B*h*ld*r is no longer OGC...

[Bendris Noulg]

I love it!

Bruce Cordell, eh? Interesting. Y'know, I've never cared for his adventures, but his rules are farely nice. Maybe this product line will actually compete with The Illithiad (to date still my favorite from him).

 

[Yuan-Ti]

I'm honestly not sure. If the yuan to weren't included, I would say that they're protecting those monsters whose very appearance is Intellectual Property - maybe for the new campaign setting, maybe for the FR TV show. But yuan ti? Snakemen aren't too original, and aren't unique. That muddies the water a little.

Anubis, no worries. I know where you're coming from.

No crap, my whole campaign I am working on and was planning on posting is based on yua... Snake-Men. There is now way WotC can get away with saying that snake-men are copyrighted. Even snakemen with human arms and torsos but snakeheads and coils instead of legs is as old as the hills. Now, the name Yuan-Ti coupled with the idea of snake-men, on the other hand, they can certainly copyright and more power to 'em.

Edit: Btw, I will let you know if I receive a cease and desist letter because of my message board alias.

 

[Piratecat]

No crap, my whole campaign I am working on and was planning on posting is based on yua... Snake-Men. There is now way WotC can get away with saying that snake-men are copyrighted.

Err - you understand that you can still use yuan-ti in your campaign, right? You just can't publish any unapproved product concerning them.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

Err - you understand that you can still use yuan-ti in your campaign, right? You just can't publish any unapproved product concerning them.

Yeah, I know!

I just meant that I can't also go posting my campaign on the web and use the term Yuan-Ti. Or can I? I would think technically no, although I doubt that WotC would really care.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Technically, as a fan, you get what's called "Fair Use". Essentially, don't reprint anything other than information that indicates what makes an individual Yuan-Ti unique from a general Yuan-Ti (Hit Points, AC, etc.), and there isn't really any problem.

For instance, I'll soon be posting how Glooms (from ELH) relate to my campaign. In addition, I'll be posting what statistical changes are required for campaign specific features (Defense Mods, Wounds/Vitality-styled HP replacement, etc.), but I will not be posting what is unchanged, indicating along the lines of "As printed in the Epic Level Handbook except as follows..."

Publishers can't do this, because there's money involved (although IANAL), but fans get a little more "play room" so long as we don't cross any clear and obvious lines.

 

[kingpaul]

Err - you understand that you can still use yuan-ti in your campaign, right? You just can't publish any unapproved product concerning them.

Actually, if you ask WotC, you might be surprised. There's been talk elsewhere on these boards that WotC has let others use their officially closed creatures with special permission.

 

[Gez]

Actually, if you ask WotC, you might be surprised. There's been talk elsewhere on these boards that WotC has let others use their officially closed creatures with special permission.

I would be surprised if Piratecat was surprised... He's a capt'n of these boards, after all; and his dreaful parrot reports to him everything that happen, so that he know when and where to cut threads with his keen scything hook.

 

[demiurge1138]

You learn something new every day...
So if displacer beasts were inspired by Space Beagle, and illithids are Lovecraft pastiches, where did the beholder and umber hulk come from? Are these truly original creations of TSR (and therefore less likely to get complaints about "intellectual property")?

Demiurge out.

 

[Piratecat]

Kingpaul, did you notice my sneaky use of the word "unapproved"? That was my shorthand for "without having gotten permission from WotC."

The beholder was created by Rob Kuntz's brother, as explained by Gary Gygax in a recent Dragon editorial. I'm not sure where the umber hulk came from.

 

[S'mon]

Although (I don't know whether anyone has already mentioned this or not) the Xill is a direct steal from The Voyage of the Space Beagle... although the original has 4 legs as well as 4 arms, Ixtl could change his molecular structure to jump through walls and ambush humans which he would paralyse and use as hosts for his young. Sound familiar? To be truer to the book they ought to have extensive energy control abilities, since Ixtl was very difficult to hurt with energy weapons.

Cheers

Under US copyright law you can't copyright an idea, only the expression of that idea. You certainly can't copyright a word like 'beholder' either, although you can trademark it. Nothing in copyright law prevents you creating monsters based off the general idea of the beholder or mind flayer, even if the original versions or the 3rd edition versions are protectable under copyright law - which is debatable. The actual Monster Manual descriptive text & stat block certainly is copyrightable though, under US & UK law (the stat block probably wouldn't be under eg German author's rights law). To my knowledge, writing "room contains Mind Flayer - 42 hp", or whatever, in your module doesn't infringe any copyrights (a trademark disclaimer might be wise though - "this product not authorised by WotC" type language), but reproducing the Illithid's MM stat block would.

It should be remembered that the SRD and OGL doesn't add to WoTC's pre-existing legal rights or detract from the freedoms of others, it's been well-described as simply a way for WotC to play nice without getting into trouble with their own legal department.

Note: I'm only saying what I think the legal situation is. Lawyers don't necessarily pay any attention to what the law actually says or what a court would most likely decide, when they threaten to sue you for something their employing corporation doesn't like, and defending a civil action can be expensive I think...