Spellbook piracy: is it theft?

[Dannyalcatraz]

How does someone making a copy of a book exert control over the copyright? Can they now license it, or legitimately produce copies of the work? No, they certainly can't. That is actually what Blackmun is explicitly talking about... making a copy takes no control over the copyright at all.

Its the most basic form of control of all. The primary right of copyright is the right to control the copying of the material:

Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:

To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;

To prepare derivative works based upon the work;

To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;

To display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and

In the case of sound recordings*, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

( http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wci )

The right to distribute also includes the right NOT to distribute- that's what they mean by "exclusive right." If you make an unauthorized copy, you've violated the fundamental principle of copyright.

A person writes a book, affixes it into some kind of readable media and then chooses not to publish it. He dies, and his will expressly says that the book should never be published. You find it and copy it, and his estate's trustee catches you. You can be sued for violating his copyright, and you WILL lose (assuming it hadn't fallen into the public domain 70 years after the writer's death).

Are you saying that if you write a book with a bunch of common recipes, formulae, or how to instructions you have created IP in the recipes, formulae, or instructions that is protected? What would be the copywritable portion of a spellbook?

Yes & No.

One could reasonably argue that those particular spells are in the public domain, or what passes for it in your campaign world, so are not individually protected by IP law.

However, the unique collection of spells & flavor text WOULD be protected. Look at the cookbook section of a bookstore and you'll probably find several similar cookbooks covering various kinds of cooking. For example, I have several books of "American" cooking, covering all kinds of traditional recipes. No 2 are exactly alike, however, when considering the details of layout and the particular recipes and commentary, no matter how pedestrian the recipes. My first cookbook was a kids cookbook (I got it at age 7), and it taught me how to make grilled cheese sandwiches, basic scrambled eggs, pancakes and so forth. I'm sure I could find a book with the exact same kinds of recipes. But despite the simplicity of that book, none would be arranged exactly the same. None would have the exact same recipes word for word. Helpful hints would vary.

If Bob the Wizard creates a new spell called Bob's Beautiful Bomb which makes a magical grenade that is magically attractive (thus bringing more victims into its blast radius), and writes it in his spellbook, it is "copyrightable" (assuming your campaign world has such a concept), and under modern law, is copyrighted as soon as it is affixed to a particular medium- here, his spellbook.

Once so affixed, nobody has a right to copy it without his permission in any form.

It would not be a copyright violation, since copyright implies copying of text. And by the RAW, every wizard writes a spell differently and uniquely.

Not so- just try translating the Harry Potter series into, say, Coptic, without permission and see how fast JK Rowling's lawyers have you paying a hefty fine. Ditto if you film a Baliwood version of the books without her clearance. Merely translating the copied text into a different form of writing or producing it in a different medium is ZERO protection.

What you are "stealing" is the method for casting that spell, which would not fall under coypright law but under patent law (the laws concerning the procedures for a process).

That is an interesting and valid point. In the USA:

The patent law specifies the general field of subject matter that can be patented and the conditions under which a patent may be obtained.

In the language of the statute, any person who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent,” subject to the conditions and requirements of the law. The word “process” is defined by law as a process, act or method, and primarily includes industrial or technical processes.

In the final analysis, it would depend on whether the courts & legislatures of your world would consider a spell an industrial/technical process (and thus, patentable), or a literary/artistic work (and thus, copyrightable).

In all likelihood, it would be viable for both forms of protection- copyright of the text ("Bob's Book of Bodacious Magery"), patent of the process (the actual spell itself). Those who copied your spellbook for dissemination, you'd sue under copyright. Those who actually used your spell, you'd sue for violating your patent rights.