Re: [Colossus-developers] Where are we going - some ideas

[David R. <dr...@ri...>]

On 2008.11.15 17:00:26 +1000, Peter Becker wrote:
> OTOH: my understanding is that only the artwork of board games is copyrighted, 
> not the rules. So even if we should get complaints there might be an easy way 
> out. But IANAL and considering that we operate in an international market 
> things are probably much more complicated than this.

That's not quite right.  The exact text of game rules is copyrightable,
like any other text.  But, at least in the US, the abstract game
mechanics embodied in the rules are not.  If you want to protect game
mechanics, you have to get a patent.

So it's not okay to copy the existing rules, or even to translate them
into French, but it's okay to rewrite another set of rules from scratch
that happen to describe exactly the same game mechanics.

-- 
David Ripton    dr...@ri...