Spellbook piracy: is it theft?

[Sigurd]

This has really devolved from the game world.

Getting back to the D&D setting. I think copying a spell without permission is more like breaking and entering for the wizard who has been rifled. Magic books are very personal and the unspoken rule is that much of magic is individualized. To copy a spell the interloper would have to have made his spellcraft check against the wizard's spellbook and now knows more about the rifled wizard than is convenient. Presumably this might manifest as counterspelling bonuses and even (I would argue) a chance to interfere on summoning spells. If individual creatures have individual, or true, names it might be a tremendous advantage to the interloping wizard. Another possible advantage might be that the interloper would know the necessary spell components the orig wizard requires and might defeat the spell by robbing the orig wizard.

The copying is not theft but it is a tremendous intrusion into what should be a very personal spellbook. The original wizard has no way of knowing if his book has not been altered or cursed or compromised in some other way. If there was damage dessecration or modification to the book then that is a separate issue.

If the book was used but not taken - it was not theft.

 

[GodOfCheese]

Intriguing...

[Note to my players: no chance of this in the current scenario; no promises as to future adventures though...]

I really liked the idea of Arcane Rights Management, particularly in the form of a "Spell Virus" (a la Sony's recent flirtation with malware). Imagine enhancing the spells you scribe with a quality such that if you haven't defeated its protections, the spell fails to operate when cast. Worse, the wizard who's copied your spellbook has now copied the protections on that spell into his own. Such protections might also affect Spellthieves or similar abilities!

Depending on the magnitude of the spell, the consequences might be as simple as the spell failing to cast (yet still consuming components and wasting the spell slot) to randomly zorching another memorized spell or perhaps self-targeting the spell. I can see it now: "unless properly memorized, this Fireball always targets the caster..."

The fun thing about the ARM/Spell Virus is that if you lend out your spellbook to a friend, you may be subjecting him to the same difficulty and wasting pages in his spellbook.

I can imagine spell libraries riddled with stuff like this, the result of either arcane miscreants or the donation and/or appropriation of ill-gotten spellbooks. It's kind of like downloading files from the internet...

The fluff is good. The crunch is a little harder though-- this amounts to a trapped spellbook, but how do you assess the CR of wasted spellbook pages and blown spell slots?

 

[Pbartender]

I really liked the idea of Arcane Rights Management, particularly in the form of a "Spell Virus" (a la Sony's recent flirtation with malware). Imagine enhancing the spells you scribe with a quality such that if you haven't defeated its protections, the spell fails to operate when cast. Worse, the wizard who's copied your spellbook has now copied the protections on that spell into his own. Such protections might also affect Spellthieves or similar abilities!

Depending on the magnitude of the spell, the consequences might be as simple as the spell failing to cast (yet still consuming components and wasting the spell slot) to randomly zorching another memorized spell or perhaps self-targeting the spell. I can see it now: "unless properly memorized, this Fireball always targets the caster..."

You know, I just realized that this is a good justification for Scrolls disappearing after use... Scrolls would be like the shareware "30-day trial" versions of spells. They work once and delete themselves. "If you enjoyed this version of Grasping Hand, logon at Bigby.com to register and download the full version..."

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

While it is true that copyright is a modern legal construct, the concept of theft is old.

It is a common misconception that theft requires that the owner of property be denied possession of his property. All that is required for certain forms of "Theft" is using the property in a way that the property's owner does not consent to or in opposition to the owner's wishes or interests.

(And, while we're at it, realize that "theft" is the general overarching term in American law- "piracy," "larceny," "embezzlement," "copyright infringement" and others are merely terms for specific kinds of theft with different relevant elements.)

From Black's Law Dictionary:

"Theft is any of the following acts done with intent to deprive the owner permanently of the possession, use or benefit of his property: (a) Obtaining or exerting unauthorized control over property; or (b) Obtaining by deception control over property; or (c) Obtaining by threat control over property; or (d) Obtaining control over stolen property knowing th properrty to have been stolen by another"

(emphasis mine)

One of the core benefits of personal property is the control over who gets to use it by loan, lease, gift or sale, or by refusing to do any of the above- the right of exclusion. That ability to deny distribution is defeated by the person who copies the IP without permission. Even though the property's owner retains ultimate possession, copying something (be it spell or software) without permission is theft.

That all said...

Even in the absence of copyright, there were other ways of enforcing one's IP rights, the 2 most common being self-help (hunt down the infringor yourself and demand recompense) or appeal to authority (usually the local royal).

Appeal to authority cases looked a lot like copyright law (with "Who came up with the IP first?" "How did you come by possession of the IP?" type questions ), since the value of IP has seldom been questioned, but with one crucial execption: there was no truly neutral court. It mattered whether you caught the copycat in your home court, the copycat's home region, or some other space. Your home court would likely rule in your favor, likewise, the copycat's home court would rule for him. Others would rule based upon political or economic expediency- was the IP holder or the copycat from a political ally or foe? Or could the court in question simply confiscate the IP for their own use?

Which is why we have copyright.

In a fantasy world without formalized IP protection, I'm sure most powerful spellcasters would go the route of self-help...and I'm pretty sure that not too many would stand in their way.

Note that the ideas underlying spells are not copywriteable, only the exact form of the spell in the spellbook. Since spells "copied" from another's spellbook use different notations unique to the separate wizard, this is not a copywrite infringement

That's incorrect.

While you cannot copyright ideas, once affixed to a permanent medium, the IP creator is protected regardless of form. If I write a book in English, and it is copied into Greek or Russian (which use a Cyrillic alphabet) or Japanese (Kanji, Hiragana, or Katakana) against my permission, it is still copyright infringement. Nor can George Lucas do a movie of my book without my permission (unless it can reasonably be deemed a kind of fair use like parody).

 

[Delta]

And a guild wouldn't rely on the state to enforce their rights, but their own secrecy and collective vengeance against anyone who copied without paying.

QFT. An in-flavor example: When the Pythagorean school discovered that sqrt(2) was irrational (could not be written as a fraction), they threatened death on any member who might let the secret out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_root_of_two

The discovery of the irrational numbers is usually attributed to the Pythagorean Hippasus of Metapontum, who produced a (most likely geometrical) proof of the irrationality of the square root of 2. According to one legend, Pythagoras believed in the absoluteness of numbers, and could not accept the existence of irrational numbers. He could not disprove their existence through logic, but his beliefs would not accept the existence of irrational numbers and so he sentenced Hippasus to death by drowning. Other legends report that Hippasus was drowned by fanatical Pythagoreans, or merely expelled from their circle.

At any rate, spells in D&D are simply secrets, with more or less jealous maintainers. There wouldn't be laws about copying, nor would the local sheriff care one way or the other, I don't think (again, guild secrets are the appropriate comparison).


Since it's a major part of the thread, I'll definitely say I'm in the "copyright infringement is not theft" camp, and there are specific court decisions that have said this explicitly in the past.

 

[Nifft]

Hey, just had a thought:

Maybe it's not actually expensive ink that's costing your Wizard a fortune when he scribes a spell. Maybe it's a licensing fee.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Since it's a major part of the thread, I'll definitely say I'm in the "copyright infringement is not theft" camp, and there are specific court decisions that have said this explicitly in the past.

The case usually cited for this premise (indeed, the only one ever cited to me personally) is Dowling v. United States, 473 U.S. 207 (1985) (
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&court=US&case=/us/473/207.html ). However, that premise is not supported by this case.

The reason copyright infringement was distinguished from theft in Dowling is that the specific law under which Dowling was convicted, 18 U.S.C. 2314, specifically regards physical transport of physically stolen goods- a specific kind of theft, not theft in general.

In fact, the Court said "Only the 2314 counts concern us here." and made a decision overturning only the counts of the charges against Dowling based on that law, and in doing so, distinguished copyright infringement from the subject matter of 18 U.S.C. 2314.

§ 2314. Transportation of stolen goods, securities, moneys, fraudulent State tax stamps, or articles used in counterfeiting

Whoever transports, transmits, or transfers in interstate or foreign commerce any goods, wares, merchandise, securities or money, of the value of $5,000 or more, knowing the same to have been stolen, converted or taken by fraud; or

Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transports or causes to be transported, or induces any person or persons to travel in, or to be transported in interstate or foreign commerce in the execution or concealment of a scheme or artifice to defraud that person or those persons of money or property having a value of $5,000 or more; or

Whoever, with unlawful or fraudulent intent, transports in interstate or foreign commerce any falsely made, forged, altered, or counterfeited securities or tax stamps, knowing the same to have been falsely made, forged, altered, or counterfeited; or

Whoever, with unlawful or fraudulent intent, transports in interstate or foreign commerce any traveler’s check bearing a forged countersignature; or

Whoever, with unlawful or fraudulent intent, transports in interstate or foreign commerce, any tool, implement, or thing used or fitted to be used in falsely making, forging, altering, or counterfeiting any security or tax stamps, or any part thereof—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

This section shall not apply to any falsely made, forged, altered, counterfeited or spurious representation of an obligation or other security of the United States, or of an obligation, bond, certificate, security, treasury note, bill, promise to pay or bank note issued by any foreign government. This section also shall not apply to any falsely made, forged, altered, counterfeited, or spurious representation of any bank note or bill issued by a bank or corporation of any foreign country which is intended by the laws or usage of such country to circulate as money.

 

[Nareau]

It's the opposite, isn't it? Bigby's Grasping Hand is protected IP, but you can use the spell all you want as long as you call it 'Grasping Hand'. Mordenkainen's Lucubration is protected IP, but you can use the spell all you want as long as you call it 'Mage's Lucubration'.

-Hyp.

Actually, "Grasping Hand" and "Mage's Lucubration" are the open source versions of the better-known (and more expensive) spells. That's why they take twice as long (and a much higher Int) to scribe into your spellbook.

Nareau

 

[Pyrex]

I would tend to agree that copying spells from someone elses book without permission is generally not a legal offense in most D&D worlds. No one in the city guard is going to waste his time because someone walked into your library and read your books.

I also agree that the mage and his guildmages are going to lay some smack down on the "thief" to in the name of recovering the "stolen" spell.

I also like the thought of trapping personally researched spells. For example Bob's Fireblast might detonate at Range=0' unless the optional material Focus (lets say, a talisman with Bob's Arcane Mark on it) is also used. Someone Bob's Fireblast should probably be allowed a high-DC Knowledge(Arcana) check to know something is wrong with the spell though.

 

[GodOfCheese]

You know, I just realized that this is a good justification for Scrolls disappearing after use... Scrolls would be like the shareware "30-day trial" versions of spells. They work once and delete themselves. "If you enjoyed this version of Grasping Hand, logon at Bigby.com to register and download the full version..."

I can see it now:

The Rogue sneaks carefully into the cave filled with Orcs. He pulls out a scroll case and begins to read from the vellum within. At its completion, he vanishes from sight. However, a moment later, a booming voice issues from the cavern: "This Invisibility scroll brought to you by Splognitz's House of Scrolls, located on the corner of 5th and Aardvark street in the Cobblestone township! Think Splognitz for all your disposable spell-completion item needs!"​

A really funny thing to do to your players ONCE.