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On game mechanics and copyright law
Jam Warrior
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Just an idle thought, definately purely hypothetical, possibly not an easy answer.
I was wondering, if someone were to make a computer game with a complete copy/paste rip of the D&D mechanics, but all the text, fluff, characters and such altered to non-copyright infringing versions, would that be kosher from a legal stand point? Obviously morally highly dubious but would Wizards have anything to get you by?
Would it make a difference if the mechanics were entirely hidden 'under the hood' in the game code?
Purely a thought experiment, I have no plans (or ability) to do anything of the kind.
I was wondering, if someone were to make a computer game with a complete copy/paste rip of the D&D mechanics, but all the text, fluff, characters and such altered to non-copyright infringing versions, would that be kosher from a legal stand point? Obviously morally highly dubious but would Wizards have anything to get you by?
Would it make a difference if the mechanics were entirely hidden 'under the hood' in the game code?
Purely a thought experiment, I have no plans (or ability) to do anything of the kind.
Jam Warrior on
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that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
ObDisclaimer: IANAL.
Many video games (e.g., Knights of the Old Republic) implement D&D-style "D20" mechanics under the hood.
Game mechanics can probably not be copyrighted. I say 'probably' because copyright is a nuanced law and broad interpretations of it may make some kinds of very literal copying of game mechanics infringement. Particular descriptions of those mechanics, and descriptions of specific characters, can be copyrighted, but the mechanics themselves can generally not be. If you reimplemented them on your own, you'd be very likely to be safe.
The U.S. Copyright Office has an article on games and what can and can't be copyrighted.
Game mechanics can probably be patented, although I'm not aware of any patents on the "D20"-style mechanics. The Bilski case, currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, may substantially change whether and how gameplay mechanics can be patented.
These issues go back to the earliest days of video games. A cottage industry sprung up in the 1980s making copies of popular games like Pac-Man. On-Line Systems (later Sierra On-Line) was sued for distributing a Pac-Man clone that was a little too close for comfort. They ended up keeping the maze and gameplay but changing the graphics so as not to include a Pac-Man character or Ghost characters. However, I believe that suit was settled out of court and so the issue was never fully resolved.
Consider also the game mechanics behind Scrabble and the recent Scrabulous debacle: the game still exists with identical-to-Scrabble mechanics, but the developers had to change the names and such to avoid trademark issues (trademark, patents, and copyrights are three different areas of IP law). This reaffirms the Pac-Man outcome.
Since they can't really be copyrighted, this is a moot question. However, if they COULD be copyrighted, then it likely would make little difference.
Anyway, assuming they don't, you would run afoul mostly of patent, like frylock said. If you lifted the ruleset wholesale you could be on the hook for copyright infringement, also.
Obviously the concept of "rolling a D20 to hit" isn't really IP by itself; it can't be copyrighted and probably wouldn't stand up as a patent either. The entire D&D system is certainly is intellectual property though, and I would be surprised if wizards didn't own and defend the patent on it.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
D20 is open-source. That does not mean that everything D20 is available, but everything on the SRD and anything marked as open by publishers is.
The SRD is, or at least was a few years ago, missing key information about leveling up. I'm not sure how that would impact things. There's also a FAQ here that has a few notes on software.
Also notice how casual games are complete rip-offs of each other. Almost every one has the game mechanics stolen from another. No suing.
To be safe, you'd need to change all the names. No "feats" or "rangers" - try "powers" and "woodsmen", and I'd guess also fudge the numbers a bit so the level progressions are different.
The actual code is copyrighted so a straight copy/paste will infringe copyright.
This.
Though, you may have legal grounds, from a thought perspective, because it would be notoriously hard to prove and because I'm sure there are a whole lot of games that have not been sued yet, or have been in play for a decade and still not sued. A lot of copyright/trademark cases get thrown out of they're not willing to enforce their copyrights or trademarks.
Yeah, I was just thinking to myself how many games lately are third person shooters that let me hide behind cover at the press of a button.
I don't think anyone is going to fault you for checking a skill against a 20 side die roll, especially one that happens "under the hood" but people would cry foul if you stole material directly out of a D&D book.
I hope this helps.
That just means you can't use their literal words - no calling it "D&D", no "Beholders" or "Mind Flayers" or monsters with identical stats to the Monster Manual equivalent.