[RQ-Rules] Re: New RQ

[Peter Brink]

Stephen Perrin skrev:
> Actually, the Swedish game Drakar ach Demoner was originally my Magic 
> World from Worlds of Wonder. I understand it has undergone a lot of 
> evolution since then, but that was its origin.
> 

Quite true. However Target Games, who produced Drakar & Demoner, 
licensed the game system from Chaosium and credited Steve Perrin on the 
title page. The reason Target Games payed a license fee was probably to 
avoid a possible law suit based on unfair competition. AFAIK the case 
law on games (in Scandinavia) are of a later date than the first edition 
of Drakar & Demoner. The cases (known to me) basically prove the point 
made above, no game manufacturer has been able to assert a copyright on 
games but they have been able to get damages based on claims of unfair 
competition when the other game has been a verbatim copy or very close 
to a verbatim copy.

As later editions of Drakar & Demons more and more different from the 
original and Target Games could stop paying licenses.

> And I didn't get a penny because it was a work for hire for Chaosium.
> 

Thankfully we don't have anything like "work for hire" in European 
Copyright law...

/Peter Brink