RE: (TFT) Open Source TFT

[Lee Burns <lburns@dmu.ac.uk>]

Its getting scary now the legal stuff is coming out. I may need to make an
Int roll to understand it!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Ty Beard [mailto:tybeard@sbcglobal.net] 
Sent: 08 July 2005 16:33
To: tft@brainiac.com
Subject: Re: (TFT) Open Source TFT

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Hartley" <jh@brainiac.com>
To: <tft@brainiac.com>

> I've been dealing with open source software for a long time, and have
> followed copyright threads on software, music and gaming forums for
> ages.

> One huge caveat I'll throw out here is that it's generally not enough to
> just go through and change things line by line based on the original,
> since you've still derived your work from a copyrighted source.

Part of the problem is that copyright law is very messy and fact-based. I 
didn't express what I meant very well. I don't mean to say that we merely 
change every sentence. Rather, I am suggesting that we re-express every TFT 
rule with original language.

> That is, you can't take a line
>  "Roll three six-sided dice and add them up"
> and change it to be
>  "Take the total from rolling three six-sided dice"
> and have that really be considered a new work if you're doing it 
> sequentially
> for every line in the original.

> Other than that, good luck, and count me in!!

Well, I will continue to refine my legal analysis, which is one reason why I

absolutely don't want anyone relying on my musings as legal advice. My 
current take is that (for instance) "Roll three dice and if the total is 
less than your DX, you hit" is a copyrighted sentence. To simply repeat this

sentence verbatim might constitute copyright infringement. But I do not 
think that the mechanic -- roll 3d6 vs DX to hit -- can be copyrighted. So a

changed sentence that expressed the same mechanic should not infringe on 
one's copyright -- "Roll three dice and add them up. If the total is equal 
to or less than you DX, you hit the target." And even a verbatim sentence 
might not constitute infringement -- there may not be a good way to restate 
it. But if we restate every single rule, we go a long ways towards avoiding 
any unintentional copyright infringement.

--Ty 
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