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<blockquote data-quote="Jürgen Hubert" data-source="post: 3397560" data-attributes="member: 7177">Most D&amp;D world aren't really familiar with the concept of &quot;intellectual property&quot; other than the bragging rights due to an inventor of a particular spell. In a standard, pseudo-medieval fantasy world, it is pretty much impossible to regulate the exchange of spells - unless the inventor simply doesn't give them to anyone else. He can give the spell to a few, trusted friends, but he'd better be sure that they won't pass it on to their friends in turn.Of course, if you have larger, more organized nations with a decent communication infrastructure, the government can attempt to regulate the spread of spells by giving them a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_patent_law" target="_blank">patent</a> - with one, the inventor has the monopoly on the use of the spell for a certain period (or even as long as he lives... though that might not be in the best interest of the nation), and anyone else who wants to use it (especially if they want to use it for profit) needs to get his permission, and probably pay for the privilege.This is possible with Renaissance-era settings or later. However, the equivalent of &quot;intellectual property&quot; laws only becomes plausible with the equivalent of modern communication technology (telegraphs, telephones, and so forth) and a large regulation bureaucracy, or else it becomes impossible to enforce.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jürgen Hubert, post: 3397560, member: 7177"] Most D&D world aren't really familiar with the concept of "intellectual property" other than the bragging rights due to an inventor of a particular spell. In a standard, pseudo-medieval fantasy world, it is pretty much impossible to regulate the exchange of spells - unless the inventor simply doesn't give them to anyone else. He can give the spell to a few, trusted friends, but he'd better be sure that they won't pass it on to [i]their[/i] friends in turn. Of course, if you have larger, more organized nations with a decent communication infrastructure, the government can attempt to regulate the spread of spells by giving them a [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_patent_law]patent[/URL] - with one, the inventor has the monopoly on the use of the spell for a certain period (or even as long as he lives... though that might not be in the best interest of the nation), and anyone else who wants to use it ([i]especially[/i] if they want to use it for profit) needs to get his permission, and probably pay for the privilege. This is possible with Renaissance-era settings or later. However, the equivalent of "intellectual property" laws only becomes plausible with the equivalent of modern communication technology (telegraphs, telephones, and so forth) and a large regulation bureaucracy, or else it becomes impossible to enforce. [/QUOTE]

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