Re: Who owns a character?

From: "Steve Pritchard" <steve@spelbind.demon.co.uk>

Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Greg Lindahl wrote in message <6revhm$jbp@news3.newsguy.com>...
>Er, this advice is quite contrary to law, both in the UK and
>US. Authors file and win lawsuits on a regular basis along the
lines
>of "Author X stole the idea of my character Foo and wrote a book
>exactly in the style of my book Bar, even though they did not copy
any
>text verbatim from any of my books."

Greg, give me an example of this please. We are talking about
someone writing a book based on the exploits of THEIR creation, not
using someone elses work. The character has been built as an
compunded effort between player and GM - that is the input the Gm
has had, nothing more. Unless the Gm has helped to write the book,
he's screwed legally.

>Given that at least one gaming company has been destroyed by an
>intellectual property lawsuit (GDW, maybe AH over Civilization),
>you shoudn't trust what anyone (even me) tells you on Usenet.

I'm not sure but I think that this was a little bit more than just
intellectual property though? We are talking about lifting a whole
game.

References

Re: Who owns a character?
"Steve Pritchard" <steve@spelbind.demon.co.uk>
Wed, 19 Aug 1998 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Who owns a character?
lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)
Wed, 19 Aug 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Who owns a character?
"Steve Pritchard" <steve@spelbind.demon.co.uk>
Wed, 19 Aug 1998 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Who owns a character?
lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)
Wed, 19 Aug 1998 00:00:00 +0000