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<blockquote data-quote="see" data-source="post: 8897871" data-attributes="member: 10531"><p>Yes, but that's not the same thing as it being easy to navigate. There's a whole area of copyright law on "derivative works" that does <em>not</em> simply go away just because you paraphrase, no matter how many times people repeat "Copyright protects expression, not ideas" like a mantra.</p><p></p><p>Ideas <em>per se</em> cannot be copyrighted. Individual words also cannot be copyrighted. But that does not mean that the novel <em>Jurassic Park</em> is unprotected by copyright because it's uncopyrightable ideas expressed in uncopyrightable words. Nor can you run out and publish a translation of the book in French on the grounds that, by translating, you've paraphrased everything into new words. Nor can anyone easily and simply list what elements of <em>Jurassic Park</em> are "copyrightable" on the grounds that Crichton was the first one to use them; the combination and arrangement of unprotected elements can itself be protected by copyright.</p><p></p><p>I've mentioned this elsewhere, but there's a reason that Sony settled the White Wolf lawsuit over <em>Underworld</em> four days after it was filed, rather than fight it out; when you copy <em>enough</em> ideas from a copyrighted work, any and all of the ideas unprotected individually, you're making a derivative work that infringes the copyright. And "enough" is <em>not</em> clearly defined anywhere; it's a judgment call the court makes. Sony might well have won that lawsuit, had it been fought out, but White Wolf's claims were <em>not</em> legally ridiculous.</p><p></p><p>Thus my specific example above of where the Pathfinder 2 <em>Bestiary</em> does the whole D&D devil/daemon/demon distinction. Or in a different thread, about the same <em>Bestiary</em> covering ten dragon types distinguished by color/metallic hue matched with alignment, breath weapon type, and relative power. Or, as long as I'm grabbing examples from the "D" section of that work, drow who are underground-dwelling white-haired red-eyed elves who have a problem with bright light generally living in a society of chaos and evil, and duergar who are underground-dwelling grey-skinned size-changing dwarves who also have a problem with bright light.</p><p></p><p>Nobody's going to make a successful infringement claim based solely on the presence of a black-colored evil swamp-dwelling dragon that spews acid in a monster book. However, the "D" section of the Pathfinder 2 <em>Bestiary</em> taken as a whole? WotC has a solid -- not certain, but solid -- case if Paizo tries to distribute it under ORC, even if they used a system compeltely unrelated to D&D for the mechanics.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="see, post: 8897871, member: 10531"] Yes, but that's not the same thing as it being easy to navigate. There's a whole area of copyright law on "derivative works" that does [I]not[/I] simply go away just because you paraphrase, no matter how many times people repeat "Copyright protects expression, not ideas" like a mantra. Ideas [I]per se[/I] cannot be copyrighted. Individual words also cannot be copyrighted. But that does not mean that the novel [I]Jurassic Park[/I] is unprotected by copyright because it's uncopyrightable ideas expressed in uncopyrightable words. Nor can you run out and publish a translation of the book in French on the grounds that, by translating, you've paraphrased everything into new words. Nor can anyone easily and simply list what elements of [I]Jurassic Park[/I] are "copyrightable" on the grounds that Crichton was the first one to use them; the combination and arrangement of unprotected elements can itself be protected by copyright. I've mentioned this elsewhere, but there's a reason that Sony settled the White Wolf lawsuit over [I]Underworld[/I] four days after it was filed, rather than fight it out; when you copy [I]enough[/I] ideas from a copyrighted work, any and all of the ideas unprotected individually, you're making a derivative work that infringes the copyright. And "enough" is [I]not[/I] clearly defined anywhere; it's a judgment call the court makes. Sony might well have won that lawsuit, had it been fought out, but White Wolf's claims were [I]not[/I] legally ridiculous. Thus my specific example above of where the Pathfinder 2 [I]Bestiary[/I] does the whole D&D devil/daemon/demon distinction. Or in a different thread, about the same [I]Bestiary[/I] covering ten dragon types distinguished by color/metallic hue matched with alignment, breath weapon type, and relative power. Or, as long as I'm grabbing examples from the "D" section of that work, drow who are underground-dwelling white-haired red-eyed elves who have a problem with bright light generally living in a society of chaos and evil, and duergar who are underground-dwelling grey-skinned size-changing dwarves who also have a problem with bright light. Nobody's going to make a successful infringement claim based solely on the presence of a black-colored evil swamp-dwelling dragon that spews acid in a monster book. However, the "D" section of the Pathfinder 2 [I]Bestiary[/I] taken as a whole? WotC has a solid -- not certain, but solid -- case if Paizo tries to distribute it under ORC, even if they used a system compeltely unrelated to D&D for the mechanics. [/QUOTE]
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