[Nel] Game Rules

Sat, 30 Jun 2001 17:31:17 -0400

I've been observing for a bit, and feel a need to jump in here.
+
+In many jurisdictions (America and England that I know of), the rules of a
+game cannot be copyrighted.  Specific presentation, game boards, pieces,
+etc. may by trademarked and copyrighted, but the rules that define gameplay
+cannot.
+
+This leads to an interesting notion when looking at making a game's source
+code public.  There is no legal protection for the rules themselves - the
+graphics, user interface, etc. may be protected, though.
+
+In this fashion, Nel seems to have a business model that will work, in that
+they will be charging to play on their servers using their bandwidth.  If
+the rules of the game are defined and implemented in source code, then those
+rules may be taken and adapted or reused.  If the rules of the game are
+implemented in libraries using a public API, then those may be "protected"
+in so far as the original source and documentation is not available,
+although anyone who wants to reverse-engineer (on the basis of behavior,
+given the licenses attached to EQ and UO) can come up with their own
+implementation of what they believe the game rules to be.
+
+All because I wanted to reimplement a game Prodigy let die, years and years
+ago....
+
+
+
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+