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<blockquote data-quote="Darrin Drader" data-source="post: 4744400" data-attributes="member: 7394">Honestly, this doesn't jive with my firsthand experience with WotC. Early on, I sent a piece to someone who worked in R&amp;D at the time, telling him to feel free to use it. It was used, I wasn't credited, but it was accidental. When I brought this up, not only did they make an immediate correction in the following two issues of Dragon, but they went the extra mile by offering to specifically write some articles, if I was interested. I was, and as it turns out, that became one of my first freelancing successes.I'm not saying that I disbelieve you or your friend, but it is true that there are a number of concepts that are intuitive logical areas to explore and are developed by a number of different parties. If your friend feels slighted, he or she should take it up with WotC. I don't agree with everything they've been up to lately, but they are not thieves.Free speech is not a guarantee on someone else's boards. For instance, one person I thought I knew somewhat well started posting a bunch of hate speech regarding a certain ethnic group on my Facebook wall. I first removed the posts, then when he didn't knock it off, I unfriended him. Bottom line is that if it's your forum, you make the rules.This is one of the areas where I am critical of them. Fans put things like this up because it is immediately useful to them. Restraining creativity in this way is a little too much like Lorraine Williams' administration at TSR.Me too, but it helps to separate the reasonable concerns from tinfoil hat level stuff.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Darrin Drader, post: 4744400, member: 7394"] Honestly, this doesn't jive with my firsthand experience with WotC. Early on, I sent a piece to someone who worked in R&D at the time, telling him to feel free to use it. It was used, I wasn't credited, but it was accidental. When I brought this up, not only did they make an immediate correction in the following two issues of Dragon, but they went the extra mile by offering to specifically write some articles, if I was interested. I was, and as it turns out, that became one of my first freelancing successes. I'm not saying that I disbelieve you or your friend, but it is true that there are a number of concepts that are intuitive logical areas to explore and are developed by a number of different parties. If your friend feels slighted, he or she should take it up with WotC. I don't agree with everything they've been up to lately, but they are not thieves. Free speech is not a guarantee on someone else's boards. For instance, one person I thought I knew somewhat well started posting a bunch of hate speech regarding a certain ethnic group on my Facebook wall. I first removed the posts, then when he didn't knock it off, I unfriended him. Bottom line is that if it's your forum, you make the rules. This is one of the areas where I am critical of them. Fans put things like this up because it is immediately useful to them. Restraining creativity in this way is a little too much like Lorraine Williams' administration at TSR. Me too, but it helps to separate the reasonable concerns from tinfoil hat level stuff. [/QUOTE]

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