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<blockquote data-quote="Mythmere1" data-source="post: 6329283" data-attributes="member: 26563">Thanks for splitting it off from the Necromancer Games thread -- what's being done in this SRD5 is completely different from what Necromancer is doing, and if the discussion gets into legal analysis, which it almost certainly will, they would get intertwined. Necromancer is publishing materials that require you to buy 5e rules in order to play -- which potentially increases, and does not decrease, sales of those underlying rules (assume there are legal nuances here: there are). There is a holistic test for copyright violation, which is followed carefully by Necromancer and Frog God Games. We don't just fly out with the &quot;game rules can't be copyrighted&quot; law. There's more to it than just that. Formats can be copyrighted, too, even if they are part of the presentation of a game's rules. This SRD5 is at least one step removed from supporting the new game, although I'm sure the guy's heart is in the right place and what he hopes to do is facilitate 3pps. But that's not his prerogative at this time, IMO. Whereas on the one hand, Necromancer is acting with its own existing intellectual property, and on its own behalf only, whereas the SRD5 is structured completely differently and for different purposes.I am by no means offering a conclusion on the SRD5, just pointing out that it uses a smaller subset of the law than the Necromancer Kickstarter, has a different economic model, and doesn't use intellectual property that was self-created under an earlier license (which could potentially restrict Necromancer to using only an OGL license rather than a specialized 5e one). This is why I wanted to avoid seeing them lumped together.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mythmere1, post: 6329283, member: 26563"] Thanks for splitting it off from the Necromancer Games thread -- what's being done in this SRD5 is completely different from what Necromancer is doing, and if the discussion gets into legal analysis, which it almost certainly will, they would get intertwined. Necromancer is publishing materials that require you to buy 5e rules in order to play -- which potentially increases, and does not decrease, sales of those underlying rules (assume there are legal nuances here: there are). There is a holistic test for copyright violation, which is followed carefully by Necromancer and Frog God Games. We don't just fly out with the "game rules can't be copyrighted" law. There's more to it than just that. Formats can be copyrighted, too, even if they are part of the presentation of a game's rules. This SRD5 is at least one step removed from supporting the new game, although I'm sure the guy's heart is in the right place and what he hopes to do is facilitate 3pps. But that's not his prerogative at this time, IMO. Whereas on the one hand, Necromancer is acting with its own existing intellectual property, and on its own behalf only, whereas the SRD5 is structured completely differently and for different purposes. I am by no means offering a conclusion on the SRD5, just pointing out that it uses a smaller subset of the law than the Necromancer Kickstarter, has a different economic model, and doesn't use intellectual property that was self-created under an earlier license (which could potentially restrict Necromancer to using only an OGL license rather than a specialized 5e one). This is why I wanted to avoid seeing them lumped together. [/QUOTE]

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