Hmm, making plugins is great for revitalising the game, but we're starting to see quite a lot of spinoffs from the EV community now.

I'm beginning to wonder exactly where we stand with regard to Intellectual Property Rights. For example, suppose someone starts publishing a guidebook to the game, or a player's handbook to the EV-RPG, or perhaps a large plugin for which they want to charge a royalty...

A lot of the concepts within the EV:O game are (I guess) the intellectual property of Matt Burch, a co-author or Ambrosia.

Suppose, for instance, I wanted to produce a book which made use of the words
Blaze cannon
Zidagar
General Borb
Emalgha
...or a star map with the same geometry as the one in EV:O, or some other thing which didn't exist until EV:O appeared.

Technically, I would not have the right to use these things in any piece of work of my own. Does the fact that the game originated as shareware affect this? The fact that these terms are used daily on the Internet? The fact that Ambrosia clearly encourage us to talk about these things and develop plugs clouds the issue.

What's the official standpoint on this, Ambrosia?

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I'd like to support the VoinianAmbassador's question.

Often I wonder to myself - can I do this, and can I do that? I end up
not making plug-ins, guides, and so on, because I think perhaps it's not
legal.

Of course, I'm not trying to say I lose sleep over all these legalities - sorry,
games producers out there, but it's true. But when the game is good I feel I
have to follow every rule as well as I can - that's why playing the game over
and over with a 30 day trial doesn't feel right to me.

Come on Ambrosia, please answer the question.

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Hmm... Ambrosia have gone silent on us. Perhaps they can't answer a question like mine without consulting a lawyer. We seem to be operating in a 'grey area' where our use of Ambrosia's concepts is tolerated but consent has not actually been given. Do Ambrosia reserve the right to exert control over the intellectual property expressed in the culture of the EV:O universe?

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Maybe you should try posting this topic in Ambrosia Banter.

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In three words I can sum up all I've learned about life;it goes on
-Robert Frost

Hmm, okay... but since I never read that board, I won't see the reply.

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Quote

Originally posted by VoinianAmbassador:
**
Technically, I would not have the right to use these things in any piece of work of my own. Does the fact that the game originated as shareware affect this? The fact that these terms are used daily on the Internet? The fact that Ambrosia clearly encourage us to talk about these things and develop plugs clouds the issue.**

From a legal point of view, none of these facts changes the situation. Ambrosia owns the copyright on the EV/O scenarios, and have the right to prevent anyone from using them in ways that have not been officially sanctioned, such as plugins and the EV Chronicles.

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David Arthur
Talon Plugin for Classic EV: (url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")http://members.aol.c...thur1/talon-ev/(/url)

Whatever the verdict, Esponer and I still want to hear it from Ambrosia themselves.

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I'm sorry my karma ran over your dogma. (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/evodude2001/home.html")New & Improved: Cerberus Station!(/url)
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