Potential For Public Domain Release of the Rules

[Lyndon Liberty]

David.  Go ahead and make the game, put my name on it, I'll take the fall,
if there is one to take.....  I am sick of copyright people, and if they
will not listen now, maybe they will then.....   Lyndon Liberty   6765 Deer
Ridge Drive, Huber Heights, OH, 45424-1249    lliberty at siscom.net

----- Original Message -----
From: David Jackson <araborn at BELLSOUTH.NET>
To: <POWERS-AND-PERILS at geo000.CiTG.TUDelft.NL>
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 1999 10:16 mliberty
Subject: Re: Potential For Public Domain Release of the Rules


> Perhaps you (and others) don't understand me.
>
> What I would like to see is P&P revived.  Commercial release is not a
viable
> option.  I have tried contacting Hasbro in a dozen different ways, with
> absolutely no success, in regards to purchasing the rights to P&P.  I have
> tried contacting them, urging them to release P&P into the public domain,
> with no success.
>
> The last recourse is to produce an unauthorized / unofficial second
edition,
> which of course would be derivative of the first edition.  And I am
> receiving staunch opposition to that here.
>
> I guess my dream is of seeing a net version, completely free, of P&P.  A
> version that we mold and form.  That we produce monster catalogs, treasure
> indexes, and campaign worlds for.  But, once again - that is an
> impossibility.
>
> It's just such a shame that I game that I personally love will be lost to
> the annals of history because of the niggling copyright holders.
>
> David Jackson
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul L. Ming <pming at YT.SYMPATICO.CA>
>
>
> >Hiya.
> >
> >>Yeah, but what about a completely revised version, which is very similar
> to
> >>the original?  (Preserving the original spirit, perhaps even the same
> basic
> >>mechanics, but revised completely).
> >
> >    So you wan't a 2nd ed P&P that is "the same but different"?  ;-)
What
> >it will boil down to is this: "Derivitive Works"  Just ask E. Gary
> >Gygax...T$R tried to convince the courts that they (T$R) owned EGG's
> >imagination.  The thing was "Because he created AD&D, every other fantasy
> >RPG he creates will be derived from the same manner of thinking; thus, a
> >derivitive work of AD&D."  Yes, they were on crack, but they also had
lots
> >of $$$.  The battle never came to a verdict...TSR simply "out monied"
him.
> >
> >    Anyway, with P&P, I think the same sort of thing might be used if
> Hasbro
> >(they do own P&P now, right?) found out and actually cared.
> >
> >^_^
> >
> >Denakhan the Arch-Mage
> >
>