Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Durall
The materials Sandy wrote are owned and copyrighted by him, unless he's sold the rights to them elsewhere. Releasing them on the web, even if for free, is in no way shape or form a relinquishment of those rights. The material will enter public domain when Sandy declares that they're in the public domain, or 75 years after his death, whichever comes first.
(Some countries vary on the length of time after death, but it's usually at least 50 years.)
My suggestion for someone wanting to do such a project (using that material) would be to contact Sandy and ask him for permission to use his work as the basis, and come to an arrangement that's mutually agreeable to both of you. This might include sharing some of the monies paid for the work. If Sandy doesn't want the material used, it's his right, and in my opinion, it's not a justification for just rewording his work and passing it off using the "you can't copyright a system, just the words" defense.
Even if you end up rewriting the whole thing from scratch, you should fully acknowledge Sandy's contribution and credit him accordingly.
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Seems fair enough to me, I've never really bought the "you can't copyright a system, just the words" defense. It might be legally ok but it seems a bit shoddy from a moral point of view ( well it does to me anyway ) It'd be nice if somebody did do a 'magic' supplement, that kind of thing always seems to sell well and would provide a welcome expansion of the rules and some nice variety.