Spellbook piracy: is it theft?

[GodOfCheese]

When a wizard copies a spell from another wizard's spellbook, is this essentially software piracy?

I thought this situation was interesting enough to post about and see if anyone else has opinions on the subject. However, I don't want this to turn into a "pirates are thieves!" vs "information must be free!" debate if at all possible...

On the one hand, there is a significant barrier to entry to CAST a spell, regardless of the cost to copy it. That is, you must have a spell slot for it, high enough Int, etc. This would suggest that spells aren't "secrets". That you can identify the name of a spell with a Spellcraft check also suggests that spells are public knowledge-- just not that many people are able to cast them.

On the other hand, Wizards who lose their spellbooks have to work hard to replace them. If a wizard researches a new spell and refuses to share it with others, then copying it without his permission seems like stealing to me. It's expensive to research a new spell, in money, xp, and time.

If you could scribe Wish into a spellbook, would you erect the scroll in the town square, knowing that only the "worthy" would understand it? Or would you squirrel it away at the bottom of the sea, to protect the knowledge from misuse or ensure that you get paid for your efforts?

 

[jgbrowning]

When a wizard copies a spell from another wizard's spellbook, is this essentially software piracy?

No.

joe b.

 

[Crothian]

If you scribe a spell from a wizard with out his okay it is stealing. The only way to do that (copy the spell) is to get his spellbook which means steal it since you don't have his permission. However I see it as nothing like software piracy.

 

[I'm A Banana]

A: Software piracy isn't really theft.

B: "Spell Priacy" is only a problem as much as wizards want to control access to their spells. Most of the time, a sort of common body of public access wizarding knowledge is available for those with the intelligence and magical aptitude to comprehend it. There are very few protected magical IP in D&D -- even the named spells (Bigby's Hand, etc.) is free to copy, use, and manipulate, and just usually requires a Creative Commons-style attribution. (You can use this spell all you want, but it's called Bigby's Hand, not just Hand!).

C: The idea of rare, dark magic that is known only to a handful has a lot going for it, mythically. Turning this on its head and saying that magic is rare because wizards are jealous and greedy and will strike down those unlicensed users who dare even closely mimic their magical power lends a pretty nifty atmosphere to a setting, I think.

D: HOWEVER, the idea of at least a common ground of wizard spells is useful for the game and for the setting and for class balance and mechanics. The idea that there's something basic about Magic Missile means every wizard can learn it and the class can be balanced around it. If there wasn't that kind of reliable baseline, the wizard would be significantly more slap-dash. Of course, a Wizard could learn Magic Missile by paying the Worldwide Wizard Copyright Industry a "small fee," I suppose. This could even exist in the game right now, and be part of the GP cost of scribing a spell into a spellbook -- you need to buy the license from the current holders.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

It's plagiarism. Unless you use footnotes or endnotes.

 

[Nifft]

Intellectual Property is a legal construct. Not a moral one.

If your D&D world requires licenses for spells known, this copying may be piracy, depending on the license.

If your D&D world does not require licenses, it's not theft.

Cheers, -- N

 

[WayneLigon]

Yes it is indeed theft, especially if it's a unique or variant spell the other wizard researched. He put the time, money, and considerable risk into creating this thing and you've bypassed all that effort, (virtually all of the) expense and risk without compensating him at fair value. This is why most wizards protect spell books with deadly spells. At the very, very best the character is a snivelling coward who should be sick and ashamed to call himself a man.

If it's a common spell (say, Magic Missle), then you've still done a dishonest and wrong thing, just as if you copied someone's diary. Your character has still violated their personal property without permission. He can create all sorts of fanciful scenarios in his head about how it's not an inherently bad or wrong thing to do, but he's still either fooling himself - in which case he truly is a fool as well as being a thief - or he's trying to cover up something he knows is wrong with words - in which case he's still a thief and a liar.

 

[jaerdaph]

Apparently only in the World of Carthasana...

*ducks*

 

[Glyfair]

Intellectual Property is a legal construct. Not a moral one.

If your D&D world requires licenses for spells known, this copying may be piracy, depending on the license.

If your D&D world does not require licenses, it's not theft.

To strip out the modern world references: It all depends on your campaign world. Whatever the wizard community feels is proper and enforces is how it works. It can even be different in different areas of the world, or in different subtle differences.

For example, I can see the standard answer to be that it's a crime to copy a spell from a wizard's spellbook without his permission. However, that passes when the wizard is dead. It gets sticky when the "dead wizard" turns out to be a lich that has been around for a millennium.

A: Software piracy isn't really theft.

I see this a lot. From a legal standpoint that's true (since you aren't depriving anyone of what you are taking). However, from a conversational standpoint "you know what we are talking about." It's a nitpick that doesn't add to conversation, it just sidetracks it into an irrelevant direction (unless you are discussing how it works in the legal system).

 

[Thunderfoot]

As a producer the software piracy issue is ILLEGAL, IMMORAL and should be punishable be DEATH!!!

Now as to the OP - no, please remember that this is not a controlled environment, there is no 'guild' that regulates the creation or the distribution of magic. Without trying to sound condesending, this is what happens when you try to apply modern real-world ideas to a medieval fantasy setting.

HOWEVER, if you think that it would be neat to have such an organization in your world, that magic is more akin to art than artiface, then I say go for it. If you think it through, it might be memorable enough to keep a campaign running, especially if the players are lawyers. (Because an mage is surely going to come under copyright infringement or intellectual licensing lawsuits at some point.) I would research the RIAA and the Harry Fox agency for a working model.