Re: (TFT) Copyright question.

[Bryant Berggren <voxel@theramp.net>]

At 10:14 AM 7/6/98 -0400, J. McGuire wrote:
>Well, can *you* afford to take on WotC's lawyers?

Well, *I* could, in that I'm so poor right now that bankruptcy would be a
drop in the bucket (most of "my" stuff actually belongs to other people nice
enough to let me use it -- I guess you could say I'm a professional freeloader).

Of course, by the same token, any publication effort I could make which
might "infringe" on the patent would be so tiny that WotC would never notice
me. They're hardly going to sue me for my "cards printed on 3x5" index
halves homebrew game".

>Doesn't matter whether you're right or wrong -- how big a lawyer can you
>afford?

Who needs a lawyer? I'm crazy, and I can read the lawbooks myself. :] Just
give me a copy of the books and a highlighter pen as Exhibit A for the jury.

> If you don't have Peter Adkison's multiple millions, you're wrong,
> no matter what the law states.

You're not "wrong", you're "answer unclear". The trouble isn't that money
buys right answers, it's that money can often buy a LACK of answers -- i.e.
the other side has to quit litigation before it gets to a decision.

>By the way, the patent filing date is a non-issue: The date given on the
>patent is for an amended filing, and the original was in fact filed within
>the time limit. Prior art, though, certainly applies. I'd propose "Nuclear
>War", "Illuminati", and "Cosmic Encounter" as prior art.

Those seem like good choices at first glance, but in actuality "Pursue the
Pennant" nearly exactly matches the Magic: The Gathering patent (more
because Garfield's patent is so damn broad it should shoot him in the foot).
Just swap "team" for "deck".

--
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to 
do nothing." -- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
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