Re: [Epic] New Game Grumbles

From: <duckrvr_at_...>
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 09:20:43 -0600

At 12:23 PM 3/14/97 +1000, you wrote:

>The point is not that they are taking the good parts of other systems to
>make their systems better, which is good for their systems.

Okay, we agree here.

>It's a question
>of whether taking someone elses idea is really right.

Obviuosly, it's not.

> The word plagarism was used against people at school and Uni for
>people that commited such acts.

And copyright infringement is used in the legal system. Plagiarism
generally refers to non-copyrighted stuff.

>For a company that is very very controlling
>with their copyright against people they employed and created works for
>them, <snip> I mean they have already stolen
>hundreds of minature desiners figures, they have ripped off concepts from
>all over the place, now they start on the rules?

Okay, this will sum up my arguments:
1) Of course, they are very controlling with their copyrights, as it is
their property. You wouldn't expect them to give away the cash they have in
the bank, whould you? No. Because it is _their_ property.
2) If they were infringing on Ground Zero Games copyrights (or anyone
else's), then you can be sure they would at LEAST be served with a cease and
desist order, and most likely be sued for damages. Obviously, they are not
infringing.
3) If the designers did ANY work at all on the figs you say GW stole from
them using GW time or materials, or while under contract, then the work
belongs to GW. If they were able to obtain the copyright, then obviuosly
they proved it in a court of law, or it was uncontested.
4) There is such a thing as "public domain." We had a discussion about 2
months ago about where the term "lasgun" came from. Someone maintained that
the single place it had been seen was in Herbert's _Dune_ series. Yet the
term is such an obvious sci-fi concept that there is no way it would ever
receive a copyright (now, anyway). If you want to maintain a copyright on
terms like that you have to absolutely nail it down and protect it from all
comers. Incidentally, Marvel Comics did this with the term "superhero."
Anyway, I have yet to see anything that GW ripped off that wasn't a very
general sci-fi concept.

Temp
Received on Fri Mar 14 1997 - 15:20:43 UTC