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Updating ROC for IP Issues
markc:
Aspire2Hope:
2nd try first post lost
Note: Constantly interrupted so may be some errors.
In general the issue can be two sided, by that I mean what if a authors for a company take other ideas and then their product becomes very popular? Then the company(s) who the info was taken from seeks legal action and it does produce a large windfall for the idea loser and a large loss for the company who took the idea. It could even potentially cause the other company to go out of business.
As I think I said about, I know quite a few posters that do not mind helping ICE out but are not interested in helping out some other game companies that compete against ICE.
MDC
markc:
I to make it very simple it comes down to this,
Why would ICE want to help for free, people/companies who compete against them and thus potentially reduce their sales and profits?
I can see the people who would like it, and those are the people who are profiting off it. ie if I was another game company I would love it if other companies provided for free or made it easy to make my product better and increase my sales.
Personal Example(s):
I know these is not exactly the same but it can be seen as close,
1) An employee only stole $20 per day so in their mind it was not theft. But over the course of a month and year you can see how the money adds up and potentially cause other problems. Also this was just one employee, think if multiple employees were doing this and how could affect a company.
2) I met a person who said they only stole about $5-$10 of food a day from a convenience store and the amount was small so they should not be prosecuted and in fact should be able to continue to do so because they also spend money there. Simply small thefts in their eyes should be free.
In general the same principles can apply to Int Prop vs phys prop.
MDC
jdale:
If someone comes here and copies what you wrote and puts it word for word into their own product, that's a copyright violation regardless of what policies ICE sets. There doesn't need to be a rule here to make it wrong.
If they take a general idea, I don't know that there is anything that could be done about it regardless of what policies ICE posts. That said, if you think there are specific infringements that cross the line, again, I would say let Nicholas know what you are looking at.
markc:
jdale,
Thanks, last year I sent both Nicholas and Terry a PM and then after not hearing something sent a PM to John who said he would look into it.
But again in general I do not know of a company that would let their assets aid another company who are in direct competition with them and not take some basic measures to prevent it from happening.
MDC
rdanhenry:
The contributors to this forum are not ICE's "assets", but rather are customers (or for this incarnation of ICE, perhaps only potential customers). ICE has no more inherent right to profit from their ideas than anyone else does. Trying to claim the contents of posts on your website is an excellent way to drive traffic to an alternative site.
As was pointed out already, ICE itself has benefited over the decades by borrowing ideas from elsewhere.* Game design is an iterative process, and borrowing ideas goes back and forth all over the place. And it is also difficult to identify borrowing from simply finding the same solution to the same problem, as people can and do independently arrive at the same idea. Unless you get more specific, it is impossible to judge whether you are jumping to conclusions or whether there is actually a suspicious parallel to something posted here.
* - Critical hit and fumble charts were being created by fans for D&D before Arms Law appeared. Many, many of the structural features of the game came out of modeling (A)D&D back in the day. Indeed, even today, suggestions made to ICE for RMU have been argued based partly on "how D&D does it".
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