[ObWarning: I ain't a lawyer and this ain't legal advice]
>True enough. But if I write a scenario for Glorantha using RQ rules,
>neither Chaosium nor Avalon Hill will own the scenario because they
>did not write it. The scenario and its copyright would belong to me.
As I understand it, this is true. Whether or not you can publish it commercially (or even non-commercially) is another, and legally rather trickier question, since its a derivative work and the existing case law on derivative work ain't terribly clear.
>Avalon Hill owns the means of creating RQ-based
>RPG material, and Chaosium own the means of creating Gloranthan
>material. If I use both those means together to create my own
>RQ+Glorantha scenario, neither company would own it.
True.
>I should be
>able to publish and sell that scenario to anyone, as long as I
>mention that the means for creating the scenario are owned by others
>(AH & C) and that certain words are trademarked ("Glorantha", frex).
>That should be it!
In an ideal world, yes. In the real world you'd be leaving yourself open to being sued by both companies instead of just one.
>Why should I need approval from anyone?
To cover your ass legally.
>The RPG industry has not addressed this issue, I think, because it's
>a much smaller industry than, say, computer software, and no one has
>really tried to produce much stuff outside the established channels.
Note that the precedents in the industry have all been settled in favour of the companies claiming their trademarks and/or copyrights have been infringed upon (of course they were all out of court settlements so far as I know, so this doesn't leave us with an actual judicial precedent. Nevertheless, caveat scriptor).
>But I don't think the industry can stop you if you do want to publish
>(for a profit) stuff on your own, as long as you don't copy their
>(copyrighted) words in your product (such as spell descriptions or
>NPC stats from their stuff).
Note that thinking like this damn near sank an obscure little Washington-based game company that produced a product called "The Primal Order" and was sued nigh unto extinction by Palladium Games for including a two-page section on using TPO (a generic supplement on gods) with Palladium's mechanics. (The company? An outfit you may have heard of called Wizards of the Coast, brought back from the brink of death by the advent of Magic: the Gathering.)
>Just because I mention the words "Pavis" and "Zola Fel" and "Wokboth"
>or "Bladesharp" and "Sense Chaos" and "Spot Hidden" in my product
>should not mean that I cannot publish it (without permission)!
Shouldn't? P'raps. Does? Almost certainly.
>In what other industry would I have such restrictions?
Fiction publishing (cf. various and sundry lawsuits over fan-written derivative material. For more on the reasons why companies and authors come down like a ton of bricks on unlicensed publications see the case of Marion Zimmer Bradley, who has lost the ability to write in part of her creation - the world of Darkover - because she wasn't zealous enough in pursuing a fan who published derivative works set in her world).
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