Legal Questions

[Ambassadore G'car]

Hi Everyone

I’ve just got a few little legal questions.

I’m considering writing and publishing a Traveller book containing both campaign information and several adventures and I’m wondering what legalities might be involved.

Some of the points I’m wondering about are:

1) Can I use the concept of the Traveller Universe, ie. Jump Drives, the Third Imperium, Vargr, etc.
2) If I can, can I use the OTU and would it make a difference if I created my own sector/subsector maps, planets, etc.
3) Is it better if I don’t use any Traveller rules systems – I’m leaning toward this as I’m hoping to appeal to ALL Traveller players rather than just those who play Hero or T20 or Classic, etc.

 

[aramis]

I AM NOT A LAWYER, and I am especially NOT YOUR LAWYER. Consult a lawyer you've hired for valid legal advice, and use the following at your own risk:

Get a copy of the Developer's Pack from MongoosePubishing.com. You can reference the concepts in the SRD. Heck, you can even use the text in the SRD. Jump Drives, an Imperium, no FTL-Commo, no FTL-Sensors, ship designs, and several other bits are in the SRD.

You can not make commercial products for the OTU unless you are doing them under contract for Mongoose Publishing or under a pre-extant license from Marc Miller. The Third Imperium is specific to the OTU and it's official ATU: the two GTUs (GT, and GTIW)

You can include rules material for MGT easily. Most of the rules material is in the SRD (No career tables are, nor are weapon damages for personal weapons) but you can reference the TMB for those, just not include them.

If you simply use standard task labels, all of which are in MGT, those are consistent for DGP-CT, MT, 2300, TNE, Dark COnsipiracy, and T2K2.2 rulesets, and T4 and T5 add one extra. T20, HT, and GT have difficulty conversions for their own mechanics. WJP's Unified Task Mechanic for CT includes the standard task difficulty labels as well, as does my dF task system. MGT includes most of the same difficulty labels. So just label tasks by difficulty and skill (and an optional attribute). d6, EABA, CORPS, D-Trek, LUG-Trek, and D-LOTR all have task systems that mate well to the DGP-CT/MT/TNE task levels.

 

[samuelvss]

I AM NOT A LAWYER, and I am especially NOT YOUR LAWYER. Consult a lawyer you've hired for valid legal advice, and use the following at your own risk:

Get a copy of the Developer's Pack from MongoosePubishing.com. You can reference the concepts in the SRD. Heck, you can even use the text in the SRD. Jump Drives, an Imperium, no FTL-Commo, no FTL-Sensors, ship designs, and several other bits are in the SRD.

I AM a lawyer, I'm still NOT YOUR LAWYER, I DON'T KNOW JACK ABOUT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, I'm certainly not licenced in your (or any) jurisdiction, free legal advice is worth what you pay for it, and I'm in recovery, anyway.

That being said...

I agree with Aramis. [95% of relevant content of post already concumed.]

Two things: buying a right for cheap, beats the hell out of getting a lawsuit for free, and hiring a lawyer gives you someone to implead if you get sued. Hiring a lawyer can be cheap, [Faces incredulous stares...] if you do it right. Find the right guy [someone who knows intellectual property], and ask to buy half an hour of his time if you really need advice.

 

[DonM]

And when in doubt, ask Marc (FFE) and Matthew (Mongoose)... They are willing to talk to people about this. And if they think your idea is interesting, they will find a way to make it happen.

Finding a way for fansites to live in the OTU and reference Mongoose material was something both of them wanted to do, and they have made it happen.

So don't be afraid to ask them...

 

[DaveChase]

When you say publishing do you mean

Publishing as creating for self OR publishing as in selling, giving out, allowing others to use outside of your own personal game?

If the first then here is my opinion (non lawyer).
You can create anything you want for your own game IF you use it only in the context of your game during such game time.
You CAN NOT make it freely accessible to whom ever you want. IT MUST STAY in your game and in your notes/material/stuff.

IF you are doing it for anyother reason then the above advice is sound.
IF you do such with out appropriate authorization then you are going to loose much.

Dave Chase