Re: world building (software)

[email removed] writes:
> I am currently working on writing a program to save me the trouble of
> rolling dice.  I am making the program based directly on the World
> Builder's Handbook, put out by Digest Group.  My questions are this:
> What kind of copyright problems would I
> have if I wanted to distribute the program via this mailing list?

To which [email removed] replies:
> Tecnically, you can't distribute it at all, even to owners of the book,
> without permission from the copyright owners.

Metlay is totally wrong from a legal point of view.  Books are copyrighted,
which means no one else can publish the book (or parts of the book) without
permission of the copyright holder.  Since jbayer is writing a program, it is
very unlikely that he will be coping large sections of the book.  There are,
however, two dangers:

    1. That jbayer's documentation might violate the copyright in some way.
       He should be very careful to avoid using paragraphs similar to
       paragraphs in the world building book.

    2. Jbayer could violate copywrites by distributing tables from the book.
       Remember that copyright covers the form of a book, NOT THE INFORMATION
       IN THE BOOK!  As long as jbayer does not display tables that look like
       the tables in the book he is OK.  Also, using tables from the book is
       fine, it is displaying tables so that they look like tables in the book
       that is a problem.

Consider an example:  There is something called the Yourdon design method,
which was described by Mr. Yourdon in a book he wrote.  There are many software
companies which sell software which implements this methodology.  Yourdon is
one of these companies, but there are several others.  Jbayer is doing the
exact same thing, so he will not have any legal problems.  Accounting
software is very similar.  The ideas have all been published in books, but
that does not keep people from appling those same ideas to computer programs.

It is also important to note that a computer program is not a dirivitive
work.  Examples of dirivitive works are translations to foreign languages
or editing a book down into a short story or magazine article.  Obviously,
a computer program is a different form of expression from a book.  It can
not be a dirivitive work unless it contains text from the book.

Remember that some phases are not mearly copyrighted, but also trademarked.
Trademark is a much stronger pertection than copyright, so be careful how
you use words like TRAVELLER which are trademarked.  You can still use
them, of course, but you must say that they are trademarked.

I'm not a lawyer.

Joshua Levy                          [email removed]      home:[phone removed]
                        {decwrl|sun|hpda}!athertn!joshua  work:[phone removed]