Re: RoboTournament - copyright problems with roborally board game?
On Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 03:52:00PM +0100, Erich Schubert wrote:
> well, the game hasn't got the priority numbers on the cards, the board
> game does have; all graphics look different, so they are probably
> "native".
Such differences would become important if there were a dispute. They make
the game distinct from the other.
> > Some games are probably covered by patents (which are used to get a monopoly
> > on an idea, like a design).
>
> Names tend to be copyrighted as well.
> I once queried Ravensburger (a german board game company) if it is okay
> to do a "Memory" Game on my homepage; they replied that i cannot use the
> name "Memory", but the idea is not copyrighted.
Ah, no. That's not copyright law, but trademark law. But it's very good
you point it out because I obviously forgot it in my reply to you.
Trademark law indeed does restrict you in the way you say. However,
trademark law is not too broad. You can not use a specific brand (name,
name in a certain font, a logo) in a specific context (consumer electronics,
or food etc). trademark law is usually easy to avoid (just choose a
different name or logo).
> > 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
>
> a board editor is included, none of the example boards i played was
> distributed with the board game; the graphics look similar but
> different. (scanning wouldn't have looked good at that size i think ;)
Hehe. Yeah, suonds good.
> > 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.
>
> upon starting the server you can change the propability of the different
> cards appeareance, so the balance probably is different from the board
> game as well.
This all sounds very good. I will take a look at the game (want to play it :)
one of the next days, and if I see a problem I will let you know of course.
But I guess it is only conceptually similar, while the implementation is
qutie different -> no copyright issue.
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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