[cc-community] [Off List] Re: New Open Gaming Licence
Peter Brink
peter.brink at brinkdata.se
Fri Feb 15 09:59:12 EST 2008
rob at robmyers.org skrev:
> Quoting Jon Phillips <jon at creativecommons.org>:
>
>> What would be the best CC license that could be called an "Open Gaming
>> License" to all you nerds out there in cc gaming land wearing a viking
>> helmet witha battle axe in tow :)
>
> The OGL is a mix of SA and NC pretty much like the FDL. BY-SA is
> probably the closest, but you'd need to sell them on educating people
> about Trademarks.
While a description of the method used to play a certain game could be
subject to copyright protection, I've never encountered a case where the
plaintiffs have succeeded in proving that that is the case. Courts have
found their descriptions non-original. The problem seems to be that the
description of the rules of a game are very prone to merge with the very
rules being explained, for example there aren't that many ways one can
explain how the playing pieces of the game of chess are allowed to move.
If one feels the need for a license, then the GPL would in my opinion
probably be the best choice of a license for games. With such products
it's quite desirable to be able to easily edit the "source", i.e. the
description of the game mechanics and with the GPL one could request
easy access to the source.
When it comes to trademarks, it's actually the authors of the OGL that
needs to be educated... Hasbro claims as a trademark a description of an
item common to the entire RPG business (a twenty-sided dice) as well as
the functionality of that item (a system of play using a twenty-sided
dice). At least in the EU one cannot claim such trademarks.
/Peter Brink
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