Re: RoboTournament - copyright problems with roborally board game?
On Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 01:11:49AM +0100, Erich Schubert wrote:
> I'd like to package this game, but i fear that there are copyright
> problems, as it's very similar to a board game (RoboRally) from 1994.
Technically, copyright doesn't cover things like game ideas. They can cover
the rules book, and the board design etc, but it can not cover the general
idea of the game.
For example, scanning in the programming cards is a no-no, but creating your
own programming cards with arrows and costs is perfectly acceptable. I am
not sure about if you use the exact same combination of costs and arrow
direction as a set. I don't think it is copyrightable, but there might be
other laws affecting that.
Some games are probably covered by patents (which are used to get a monopoly
on an idea, like a design).
You should stay on the safe side with the same rules, cards and boards as
long as you don't copy it (with a scanner etc). However, I don't think this
is automatically true then, because they might have a standing out on some
other but copyright law (patents and plagiarism come to mind). I think
scrabble is sending out cease and resist letters for everything that
resembles a board game where you put letters on fields to make up words ;)
but it is hard to tell if they would really win the law suit in case of
disobeyance.
Hoefully this game is written in a way to allow other boards and card sets
(and new type of cards etc), and then it isn't a problem at all. Although
it might take some games to find out what boards and cards make for a fair
and funny game, I am sure there'd be plenty of boards and card sets
coming up.
Thanks,
Marcus
--
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' Debian http://www.debian.org brinkmd@debian.org
Marcus Brinkmann GNU http://www.gnu.org marcus@gnu.org
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de
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