While it is true that there's little possibility of GDW making a
successful "intellectual property" lawsuit based on just the ideas
in Traveller, not actual copyright violation, please keep in mind
how hard it would be to _not_ violate copyright on their collected
works if someone did an unlicensed product.
You'd have to avoid referring to interstellar travel via a week-long
hyperspace as "jump". You'd have to try and keep "Imperium" out of
it for most intents and purposes. All alien race names would be
verboten. Star system names might even be covered.
Heck, the task system is probably copyrighted and -able, so it's
probably out, too. Weapon names like "7mm Assault Rifle" or
"RAM GL" or "PGMP" are probably out.
Could someone say, publish a book and make use of some subset of these
ideas? Likely. They're not totally unique to Traveller in scifi
writing and gaming. However, any significant subset of them,
say enough to make a viable module, would probably be a violation.
Motto: if you go commercial, get a license. If you're totally amateur,
it doesn't matter 'cause they have to prove damages if they sue
you for infringement, but make any money off it and you play the
game their way. Writing an adventure article for a magazine is
generally considered "ok" in the industry, but publishing a
Traveller-oriented commercial product would be uncool.
- -george william herbert
[email removed] [email removed]