Intellectual property rights and larp

[Ryan_Paddy]

If you are going to correct me, please have the courtesy of actually reading what my statements say and then get your facts right. I’ll try to do the same. I said I was on the net in the 80s, not the web. Thank you.

I read what you said, although your comment about labelling something “the internet” in 1990 made absolutely no sense to me.

I was the person who said NERO become popular before the Web became popular. That was the whole of my point, that NERO got popular before public online sharing of content got popular. That online sharing happened on the Web from around 1995 on.

I specifically didn’t say the Internet. The Internet started in the 60s or 70s, but hardly anyone had access to it until the Web came along, harnessing the Internet to provide easily-accessable content that the public could make sense of and contribute to. The pre-Web Internet wasn’t the near-universal medium that the Web has become, and the general public didn’t share content on it the way they do on the Web.

I’m talking about the modern culture of people sharing stuff on the Web. What has the pre-web Internet got to do with that?

[Ryan_Paddy]

perhaps this would be better worded as “…we will continue to protect the copyright on the book”.

Are you meaning “we” as in NZLARPS? As I said before, I think the society will help larp creators protect their intellectual property under the law. Adam & Mike have backed that up.

I don’t think copyright law cares whether you publish in print or online, the writer retains copyright either way.

[Ryan_Paddy]

I’m sorry if any of this comes across as hostile. For my part, I’m only trying to be informative and helpful.

I’m not attacking anyone or making demands (I don’t think anyone is), and I respect everyone’s right to approach their intellectual property any way they like.

[Exquire]

Likewise, and I’ll add that nothing anyone’s saying represents an official view-point of NZLARPS. We’re just committee members at best.

I think the next thing to bring up here is that you keep the copyrights on any publication regardless of how it is distributed. For example I can watch TVNZ content on the new tvnzondemand.co.nz/ but it doesn’t mean that I own the copyright. TV programs take a lot of work, money, people, time, and are worth a lot. TVNZ recognises this now so they give what they can away for free (ok, ad-supported) because they can see that doing so is good for them.

The difference is, they’re making a consumable good and we’re making collaborative works. So it makes far more sense for us to share freely than them, surely!

As discussed, copyright law protects this no matter how far it travels. TVNZ still owns the copyright. If Quest Waikato published their rules online as a free PDF they would keep the copyright.

Rulebooks are only one creative part of a larp. If everyone that added their creativity to the mix wanted to charge for it then I don’t know what we’d have. I think that putting a larp on is a big risk and a great service, so I’m not against game organisers being rewarded for that. But I don’t think charging for the creative stuff is in the spirit of larp - I think that if you’re going to charge for anything (or make a profit off anything) it should be the act of putting the game on.

Is selling the rulebook designed to be a revenue source? If not, I cannot see a reason to prevent access. If so, I would suggest this is not a good place to tax.

[Dr_Varteron]

Well, lets give everyone some breathing space, and take that much needed deep cleansing breath!

See, feeling better?

Right.

Givens.
[ul]We don’t want to rip off the QW rule book.

We respect the rights of QW to do what they want with their rule book.

QW doesn’t want to give reasons about their exclusivity yet. Thats one of the things we’re trying to find out. But we should respect their right to do so, weather we agree with it or not.

We don’t advocate the actual copying and distribution of any work without permission, but have [color=blue]discussed[/color] as an intellectual exercise. We won’t support anyone who does, and will stand with QW in our mutual opposition against anyone who does.

We are all adults here, and can play nice.[/ul]

Any problems with this? If so discuss below, but nicely.

[color=blue]edited for clarity, I was 1/2 asleep at the time. Thanks Steph [/color]

[Wulfen_David]

polite applause from the gallery

[adam]

polite applause from the gallery

agreed

[Telpe]

[quote=“Telpe”]perhaps this would be better worded as “…we will continue to protect the copyright on the book”.

Are you meaning “we” as in NZLARPS? As I said before, I think the society will help larp creators protect their intellectual property under the law. Adam & Mike have backed that up. [/quote]

Actually, in this case, ‘we’ referred to Quest Waikato.

[Ryan_Paddy]

Actually, in this case, ‘we’ referred to Quest Waikato.

Okay, colour me confused.

I think we’re saying the same thing, that the authors of the Quest rules would retain legal copyright on the book whether they published them in print or online, and their ability to defend that copyright would be unchanged regardless of method of publishing.