Re: Open Transport Tycoon - if it was like freeciv
De: Per Eric Rosén [mailto:per@rosnix.net]
>
> On Tue, 17 May 2005, Humberto Massa Guimarães wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> > 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.
>
> Yes. Seems like in this case boils down to: what is the difference
> between a storyline and a ruleset?
It's the difference between creativity and technique. And yes, this
answer is a non-sequitur.
>
> To countinue my strangeness: If we viewed *civ and *tycoon as
> utility software :-) ? Like, freeciv - itsn't a game - it a
> reseach utilization simulation and modelling software ... And TT
> could probably be educational software for the operation of public
> transit, or if we made somthing more exact - a good
> schedule-simulation software for your transport department :-)
>
> In this case, you should relly be able to make competing software
> that fills some purpose. If the storyline is just "a program that
> allows you to simulate public transport operation with advancing
> technology", it sould more like a (stupid) SW-patent than
> something that can be copyrighted. Or?
If you do just that, a program that allows you to simulate public
transport operation with advancing technology, you are probably
safe, as you are if you make a game that allows you simulate a game
of soccer. The devil is in the details: the closer you get to the
details (the way streets and avenues are viewed and portrayed in
TDD, or in my example the way you pass the ball and control the
players in FIFA2005), the closer you get to capture what is really
controlled by copyrights: the creative expression.
>
> I can say "I like the idea of a Office suite with this and that
> look and features" and then write a software package that many
> users even can't tell is something other than the original Office
> suite. Not sued yet. Or?
>
> > 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).
>
> Hmm. But isn't this *very* much how freeciv works?
Yes it is, AFAIK.
>
> Both games IMHO are more of the concept/utilty-type, and have a
> pretty non-existing storyline (of the "once upon a time ..."
> kind).
This is a real, valid point.
--
HTH,
Massa
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