INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY A Very Informal Introduction For Gamers [Note: The following used to form part of the Frequently Asked Questions file for the Usenet newsgroup uk.games.roleplay. However, it may be deleted or significantly reduced at some point to save space. As I believe that it may still serve a purpose, I'm putting it here on the 'Web. Please remember that I am not a lawyer, this is not formal legal advice, and anyone who takes it as anything more than a casual amateur explanation of some ideas that may come up in Internet conversation is a fool.] Q. What's the difference between copyrights, trademarks, and patents? A. Intellectual property law is a large and messy subject - especially in an international context - and there really isn't space to do it justice in a FAQ. Nor, for that matter, am I an expert on the subject. However, it is sometimes relevant to discussions on the newsgroup, so it's worth providing a brief outline. Remember, to begin with; some regular posters deal with such issues regularly in their day jobs, and they can become a little irritated with people who argue about intellectual property rights without, say, remembering the difference between copyrights and trademarks. When the law is involved, it's important to be precise, and shooting your mouth off will get you mocked. On the other hand, if you ask politely, they may be willing to explain details you don't understand. For more specific information, see the 'Web sites listed below. HOWEVER - if you're involved in legal actions involving intellectual property, and especially if you're going to court, you need a lawyer. NOW. The following is NOT professional legal advice, makes no claims to be definitive, and should not be used for reference if there's money involved. Anyway, in brief: COPYRIGHT is ownership of the content of a piece of creative work, such as writing. It is granted automatically, with no need for registration, and it is covered by international conventions signed by almost every country on Earth. It generally belongs to the author (or their heirs for several decades after their death), unless the creation was done under contract, as "work for hire", in which case the copyright belongs to the employer. When you buy, say, a book, you buy one copy of the text - but the copyright remains with the creator. If you photocopy the book, or scan it into a computer, you are violating copyright, and the author or publishers have every right to set their lawyers on you. It makes no difference whether or not you are making any money from the copying; aside from anything else, you are quite likely reducing the chances of them making money from it. Quoting short extracts for review or discussion is usually okay under various "fair use" get-out clauses, and is unlikely to get you into court, but don't push your luck. And yes, the Internet and the 'Web are fully covered by copyright. It may sometimes be a little harder to enforce, but enough money, spent on enough lawyers, will deal with that. Electronic communications are not above the law. There's no copyright on ideas or facts - just on the way they are presented, the "expression of ideas". But ripping off another writer's stuff is not only bad manners, it can very easily be interpreted by a court as plagiarism and breach of copyright. It's unwise to push your luck in grey areas, if only because publishers will not generally touch suspected plagiarists with a ten-foot pole. (It's too much grief for them.) Incidentally, original characters are generally covered by copyright. Legendary characters (such as, say, Hercules) are in the public domain, but something that borrows too much from a modern telling of the tale (such as Disney's "Hercules" movie or the TV version) may be considered breach of copyright. TRADEMARKS are names, symbols, or logos used to identify something in the commercial world. They are covered by a fairly complex system of claims and registrations, mostly at the level of national law. The main aim of the system is to stop anyone passing their products off as someone else's work. For example, you can't call your game "Dungeons and Dragons" - that's a TSR trademark. If you called it "Demons and Dragoons", you'd probably be pushing your luck. But you can talk about TSR's Dungeons and Dragons, by name, as much as you like; that's not passing anything off as TSR's product. The distinctive logos that companies use are also covered by trademark law. Note that using either names or logos in, say, a magazine you publish - even a fanzine - may fall foul of trademark problems, especially if they are attached to, say, a scenario for the game. (The scenario might be taken for something the company sells.) Most companies will permit magazines to use such things, provided that the trademark ownership is acknowledged, but permission IS required, and is not automatic. Note also that the law says that companies MUST enforce their trademarks; otherwise, they lose them. It may seem harsh, but it's the rules. So if you hear about a games company taking a fanzine publisher to court over trademark use, don't assume that the company is evil; they probably have no choice if they want to hang on to the thing that marks their products out from everyone else's stuff. PATENTS are the things that give inventors rights to machines or processes that they invent, handled by a registration system at the national level. As such, they are not generally relevant to the RPG industry, as you can't patent ideas with no unique physical form. However, in 1997, Wizards of the Coast were granted a patent for "Magic: the Gathering", their trading-card game - something which caused a lot of discussion and controversy in the hobby game world at the time, and which may have indirect consequences for the RPG business on occasion. The following 'Web sites have been recommended by readers of the newsgroup as providing more extensive information on these subjects: Copyright in general: UK Copyright: UK Trade Marks: International Protection of Intellectual Property: On Intellectual Property in the USA, see the US Patent and Trademark office site at: - recommended pages at this site include: The latter is a pamphlet, customarily furnished in response to general information requests about trademarks received at the Patent and Trademark Office. This whole site is widely recommended as a first stop. Q. Didn't TSR trademark the word "Nazi"? A. It may seem bizarre to include such a specific question in a FAQ, but the number of times the thing comes up really does justify it. The quick answer is "no." What seems to have happened is that TSR's old "Indiana Jones" game included an illustration or cardboard figure of a Nazi soldier (as a villain), with a "TM" symbol next to the word. The myth grew from there. However, what was being trademarked was NOT the word, but the associated image. Furthermore, the trademarks in that product were claimed, not by TSR, but by Lucasfilm (makers of the Indiana Jones movies). However, some people refuse to let mere facts get in the way of a good urban legend. This one is amazingly persistent. If you try to resurrect it on the newsgroup, expect to be derided by the old hands. Plenty of people on the newsgroup find plausible reasons to mock the old regime at TSR (and others are ready to defend the company). But please leave the "Nazi(TM)" canard out of it.