Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 22 Feb 2008 to 23 Feb 2008 (#2008-31) From: MYSTARA-L automatic digest system Date: 24/02/2008, 19:00 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 6 messages totalling 276 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Preserving the Material (6) ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:40:11 -0800 From: Joaquin Menchaca Subject: Preserving the Material Hi. I used to role play a lot and was a big Mystara up until I became an addict of World of Warcraft. I am probably not going to dive into it anytime soon, but I still have a lot of the books. I was curious about the copyrights and stuff. Does anyone really care? I was thinking of scanning the material into hi-res PDFs (better than the cheesy e-books that were sold before) for a preservation project I will do as some point. I don't know if I could every make it available for others, or would that be illegal. I know copyright has a lifespan, but companies can continually renew it, such as Disney has done with Micky Mouse for example. How can one determine the status? Is there precedent set on this matter? - Joaquin ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:32:15 +0100 From: la Volpe Subject: Re: Preserving the Material If you own the material I think you can freely make pdfs for personal use, but you're not allowed to share with others. Don't know exactly, though. :) Joaquin Menchaca ha scritto: Hi. I used to role play a lot and was a big Mystara up until I became an addict of World of Warcraft. I am probably not going to dive into it anytime soon, but I still have a lot of the books. I was curious about the copyrights and stuff. Does anyone really care? I was thinking of scanning the material into hi-res PDFs (better than the cheesy e-books that were sold before) for a preservation project I will do as some point. I don't know if I could every make it available for others, or would that be illegal. I know copyright has a lifespan, but companies can continually renew it, such as Disney has done with Micky Mouse for example. How can one determine the status? Is there precedent set on this matter? - Joaquin ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. --------------------------------- --------------------------------- L'email della prossima generazione? Puoi averla con la nuova Yahoo! Mail ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:54:53 -0500 From: Joe Mason Subject: Re: Preserving the Material On 2/23/08, Joaquin Menchaca wrote: > project I will do as some point. I don't know if I > could every make it available for others, or would > that be illegal. I know copyright has a lifespan, but > companies can continually renew it, such as Disney has > done with Micky Mouse for example. How can one > determine the status? Yeah, that would be illegal. Copyright can't be renewed - once it runs out, it runs out. The way Disney has been able to renew Mickey Mouse's copyright is by lobbying governments to extend the standard copyright term every time their copyright is about to run out. I doubt WotC has the clout to do that. However, the standard copyright term in the US for works created for hire is 95 years from the date of publication, so Mystara material published in 1980 won't be public domain until 2075. Unless they extend the law again. (It may be shorter in other countries, so you might end up in a situation where it's legal to republish it in Europe but not the US, for example, but it still wouldn't be for another 20 or 30 years at least.) Joe ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:10:27 -0500 From: Roger Girtman Subject: Re: Preserving the Material Copyrights cannot be renewed, trademarks can. Currently, according to the US Patent & Trademark Office, a copyright exists for the life of the owner plus 70 years. That means D&D material will become public domain 70 years after WotC/Hasbro goes belly up, without selling out to a different company. As far as making PDFs for yourself, this falls under archival purposes, similar to making a back-up of a CD or disc and is completely legal (although the powers-that-be might want you to believe otherwise). Just like backup software, whatever you do to the original must also be done to the backup. You may not trade, sell, or give away this copy. If you trade, sell, or give away the original, you must also transfer or destroy the backup pdf. You may however keep the backup indefinitely if the original is destroyed, but in this case, the copy can no longer be transferred. More information on copyrights and trademarks can be found on the faq's page at www.uspto.gov. Also Wikipedia's article on copyrights and trademarks are quite well done, and explains the idea that "rules can't be copyrighted"--an informative read. Hope this helps, Roger -----Original Message----- From: Mystara RPG Discussion [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM] On Behalf Of Joe Mason Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2008 10:55 AM To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Subject: Re: [MYSTARA] Preserving the Material On 2/23/08, Joaquin Menchaca wrote: > project I will do as some point. I don't know if I > could every make it available for others, or would > that be illegal. I know copyright has a lifespan, but > companies can continually renew it, such as Disney has > done with Micky Mouse for example. How can one > determine the status? Yeah, that would be illegal. Copyright can't be renewed - once it runs out, it runs out. The way Disney has been able to renew Mickey Mouse's copyright is by lobbying governments to extend the standard copyright term every time their copyright is about to run out. I doubt WotC has the clout to do that. However, the standard copyright term in the US for works created for hire is 95 years from the date of publication, so Mystara material published in 1980 won't be public domain until 2075. Unless they extend the law again. (It may be shorter in other countries, so you might end up in a situation where it's legal to republish it in Europe but not the US, for example, but it still wouldn't be for another 20 or 30 years at least.) Joe ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:41:57 -0500 From: Joe Mason Subject: Re: Preserving the Material On 2/23/08, Roger Girtman wrote: > Copyrights cannot be renewed, trademarks can. Currently, according to the > US Patent & Trademark Office, a copyright exists for the life of the owner > plus 70 years. That means D&D material will become public domain 70 years > after WotC/Hasbro goes belly up, without selling out to a different company. No, that's only for works created by a private author (or team of authors), and it's for the lifetime of the author. Work-for-hire, where the author is paid by a company and the rights are owned by that company, is a set number of years (currently 95). Joe ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:48:39 -0500 From: Rodger Burns Subject: Re: Preserving the Material > Copyright can't be renewed - once it runs out, it runs out. The way > Disney has been able to renew Mickey Mouse's copyright is by lobbying > governments to extend the standard copyright term every time their > copyright is about to run out. I doubt WotC has the clout to do that. > > They hardly need it, though. =/ As you've pointed out, every couple of decades Disney realizes that 'Steamboat Willie' is about to fall out of copyright, pulls out the lobbyists and gets Congress to extend the duration of standard copyright by another 25 years or so. WotC, and everyone else, gets to piggyback on this, and enjoy effectively perpetual copyright. I wouldn't expect anything created after 1928 to ever have its U.S. copyright expire. ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 22 Feb 2008 to 23 Feb 2008 (#2008-31) ***************************************************************