Xref: utzoo rec.games.programmer:497 rec.games.frp:8057 comp.sources.wanted:5853
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!yale!yalevm!VICPAUA
From: VICPAUA@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer,rec.games.frp,comp.sources.wanted
Subject: Re: Re^2: Wanted:  AD&D (FRP Game) Data files
Message-ID: <159@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu>
Date: 21 Dec 88 00:23:36 GMT
References: <881220-075538-4806@Xerox>
Reply-To: VICPAUA@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Organization: Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
Lines: 28
Disclaimer: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article

In article <881220-075538-4806@Xerox>, Luce.wbst@XEROX.COM writes:
>In article <221@lakesys.UUCP> jamesd@lakesys.UUCP writes:
>> WHat you are about to do is VERY illigal.  You WILL be sued by TSR.  I ought
>> to know they tried to sue me too!
>
>I was under the impression that as long as I, in no way, re-distributed the
>data, and utilized it ONLY for personal use, I should have no
>difficulty, since I am in no way "competing" with any current or future
>marketable item from TSR.  Therefore I could not be accused of "hurting"
>TSR's market reguarding such data, and so could not possibly be accused
>of costing TSR any loss in revenue, and thereby any justification of
>lawsuit.
>
 
  As someone who will (hopefully) soon be wrangling over the problems of
game copyrights, to the best of my non-legal knowledge, you are
completely correct - as long as your "DM's aid" is used BY YOU and is not
distributed to ANYONE else, you're just fine. To draw an analogy, you can
make archival copies of copyrighted software - you just can't distribute
them to anyone.
  (On a more practical (and non-legal) note: if you used such a aid only
for your own use, I don't know how TSR would ever find out you're using
it, even if (by some means) it WAS illegal. Unless TSR has spies every-
where...Hmmmm...)
 
Paul Vick (VICPAUA @ YALEVM)
"The first 90% of a programming project takes the first 90% of the time,
while the last 10% takes the other 90%."