Books, Plagiarism, Copyright Infringements

[Zynarc]

I recently found some interesting books on a character and I wonder if there are any sort of plagiarism or copyright infringements in the game? I'm asking because I want to have notes of the book copied out and handed out. Is this allowed?

[Caelnai]

*crickets chirping*

Bit of an aside, I just helped complete the entire re-coding of a mud that somehow caught the attention of the publisher of the works it was based on. Oy. There'a a year of my life I'll never get back.

[Jaenoic]

Zynarc, do you mean you found books in real life and you want to copy them into the game? Or you found books in game and you want to copy them in real life? Or some other combination of the above mentioned factors?

[Zynarc]

Alright, all of this is IN GAME.

Let's say Amy found three very interesting books. Let's say they are books of Story, Song, and Wisdom. Amy thinks these are fantastic knowledge that should be spread around. She gets a few scribes together and makes a few copies of them and hands them out as flyers.

Now the problem here is, will there be any infringements of rules in bardic circles? Will Amy be assassinated because she made some bards lose money because she's spreading them around for free? Are there any hard ground rules on this?

So, there's nothing from real life introduced here. Everything happens in the game.

[Layna]

I'd say at the very least you'd need to credit the bard. Better still would be to get in touch with them and thrash out the details IC. Some might be fine with it, so long as you're not reproducing the entire thing wholesale, some might want payment. Perhaps you could consider paraphrasing the work instead of copying it and including a footnote to point the reader to the source - a kind of a "for more information, read [name of work] by [name of bard]"?

[Caelnai]

...Some might be fine with it...

And beware, as some might not. For the record, any bard PC of mine will personally vivisect anyone copying any part of her works and prominently display their head on a pike outside her publisher's office.

(I mean that this seems exactly the sort of thing that can and should be worked out IC-ly.)

[Layna]

Precisely - I don't think there's a 'catch all' answer here, I really think it's going to vary depending on who the bard is. Handling it ICly is best - and will generate RP, which is aces.

Of course, you're going to run into issues if the bard you're thinking of is no longer active... but personally I'd be inclined to say that if you can't get in touch with them, best not to. Maybe just point people to the book instead.

[Zynarc]

What if the bard's been gone for 2 years? What if the author's anonymous?

I would have considered those points if I could, but some bards may just have met their maker already.

[Selveem]

I think, do it, if you want to.

I personally think that OOCly it would suck for it to happen to my Bard-wannabe, but it's all IC.

Everything can be dealt with ICly. Even if you don't give credit to the author and claim it as your own.

I'm sure you'll be hunted down by every bard, faith member of Oghma's church, and a ridiculous amount of assassins/mercenaries hired by the two, but hey, you'll get some new Cyricist friends!

Unfortunately, I don't think there's an actual rule.

[Lathlain]

This isn't something you can really discuss out of character. I'm not aware of any royalty and publishing laws in any of the in-game cities (remember that Waterdhavian laws don't necessarily apply anywhere outside of Waterdeep, after all), so that leaves the response down to the bards themselves, whether they're still around or not!

It may or may not be in character for you to reference the bards you're copying work from, but you'll need to be prepared for the IC consequences if not. I certainly don't think that any bad feelings should flow over into OOC though.

[Alvirin]

Actually I think that the publishing houses (whom theorically are those who pay the character for his publication) might have an opinion as well. I could see the Zhentilar publishing hall hiring a few goons to beat badly a copyright infractor

[Isaldur]

Stealing intellectual property has always been a part of society. These days it is posting entire copyrighted books to websites, or pirating computer software. A few hundred years ago it would have been people copying poems by hand and trying to re-sell them. The laws will vary city by city, and the enforcement from publishers would vary by publisher. The only happenstance I can see a blanket approach to the whole thing is if the -entire- bards guild decided to work together (impossible anyways for bards) and start punishing those that spread their works without permission. Even then I don't think the bard guild is a centralized guild anymore because of the many colleges now in the game, and the fact that there hasn't been a head of the entire guild since Mirabai.

Anyone submitting work to the MUD itself has given the MUD free use of their work, so as long as you keep using said work ICly it should be figured out ICly. The problems that may start ticking off the players instead of the characters would only arise if someone is ripping off another's work OOCly.