RE: [GD-General] Copyright on games

[Gareth L. <GL...@cl...>]

> My understanding is that it's patents you have to worry 
> about.  Patents 
> being for the "idea" and copyright being for the "implementaion".
> 
> So you could copy the basics of the game idea, but you would 
> have to make it 
> look different. (Unless they have a patent)
> 
> The easiest way to find out what matters is to contact the 
> creators of the 
> original game, and a lawyer :)

Hmm, that makes a lot more sense to me thank you. So theoretically, unless
the gameplay itself is patented (not likely ofcourse), a game that looks
totally differant but is the same gameplay would be legal.

I wonder how this passes over to more standard games like Chess, Bridge etc
? I doubt anyone has a patent on that :)