RES: Open Transport Tycoon - if it was like freeciv
De: Per Eric Rosén [mailto:per@rosnix.net]
> A bit counterfact maybe but ...
>
> Let's say, if I liked the concept of TTD (which I did), and
> started to write a "FreeTycoon" like freeciv, without using any
> material from TTD at all, and also without requiring original TTD
> data for execution, how close could I make it to the original
> *rules* and behaviour?
>
Rules and behaviour IMHO are (in Brasil at least) safe, even from
patents. What would be a good translation for "mise en scene"? This
is a concept that I find kind of difficult to explain.
> Would this change if I used bits of the free openttd *game engine*
> in my project? Or: can really this "misa en scene" extend to the
> rules - the alghoritm? That sounds more like patents. I.e. - in
> the "FreeTycoon" (or "FreeTransportKing", for avoiding trademark
> stuff too ...) I'm not using any of the characters of ttd at all,
> but am taking a new selection of buses, ship types etc, use a
> roughly similiar - but better ruleset, and implement all with
> fresh (non-TTD) code and data.
Anyway, you are *confessing* in your first paragraph that you are
*transforming* the storyline that is part of the game TTD into
another work. So, your FreeTycoon game *is*, for starters, a
derivative work, since its first inception.
Any scenery and/or characters you draw that resembles the original
ones -- and interacts as would the original ones -- would be
construed IMHO as proof of infringement (provided you don't have an
authorization from the copyright holder to make a derivative work).
Your question can be considered an analog to: ''I want to write this
book about a young blonde girl from Russia that in her 12th birthday
discovers that she is a witch and is sent to a witch school in
Ukraine, team up with some friends, etc... The characters would be
different (*), the scenery would not be the same...''
(*) altough many would be witch school students, some would be
teachers, probably there is a principal in the school, etc...
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