Re: Midgard

From: Stephen Weir <sweir@sweir.free-online.co.uk>

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 00:39:54 +0000

madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral) wrote in
news:20040217074830.11576.00002080@mb-m12.aol.com:
> Purely as speculation:-
> There's really no reason why somebody couldn't design a very similar
> game, and call it Midgard.

True, but a very similar game called Midgard would probably fall foul of
Intellectual Property laws.

> The name itself isn't trademarked or protected.

You'll find it very hard to copyright names from mythology.  I believe
there is a German RPG called Midgard.

> Copyright only covers the written materials, which means so as long as
> you didn't copy the exact text and rewrote the rules your own way,
> anybody could design and run Midgard.  It would be extremely difficult
> to contest in a U.K. court.

There are games out there that are similar to Midgard, but none of them
are Midgard.  If they were obvious copies of Midgard it would be very
easy to contest.  Besides, it'd be hard to run the game without a head.

> Of course, that'd be a scummy thing to do, but as many games companies
> have found its extremely difficult to copyright game mechanics.

Strange that it should be the first thing to pop into your head.

--
Stephen Weir

New Year's Resolution # 1: I will not argue with idiots on Usenet!
List of Games for Sale - http://www.glipe.free-online.co.uk
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References

Re: Midgard
Carol Mulholland <carol@pbmgames.com>
Sun, 15 Feb 2004 20:36:41 +0000
Re: Midgard
madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)
Tue, 17 Feb 2004 12:48:30 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Midgard
Carol Mulholland <carol@pbmgames.com>
Sun, 15 Feb 2004 20:36:41 +0000
Re: Midgard
madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)
Tue, 17 Feb 2004 12:48:30 +0000