Discussion:
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Illinois and UK
I have become involved in an unusual situation for which I cannot find any
relevant material on the internet. I hope that someone on this forum may be
able to provide some advice.
I play a game called Starfire, which consists of a paper set of rules, a
hexmap and some counters. The game is complex but in general terms it is
about exploring space, building an economy, meeting other races and fighting
them. Players are required to generate their own pen and paper maps of the
galaxy using system generation rules, keep paper-based economic records and
design ships, etc. The hexmap and counters are used to resolve battles when
the ships of two races meet in combat.
About ten years ago I started using a computer program I developed to handle the system generation. When I mentioned this on the mailing list for the game a lot of people showed an interest so, with the full knowledge of the
owner of the game, I started letting people have copies of the software. The
software grew over the years until it handled almost all aspects of the game
and become the de facto standard assistance program. My user base is at
least in the high hundreds based on my private mail and probably in the low
thousands. Much of the functionality was suggested by players posting in the
official Starfire forums and involved discussion with the game's owner. The
owner of the game even included a link on his website to direct people to
the software. The software is now about 100Mb to install and has over 140
screens. There is no instruction manual or help for the software, although
3rd parties have written tutorials, and you need to buy Starfire in order to
make use of it. An example of features can be found in the release notes at:
I have never charged for this software or made any profit from it of any
kind. In fact, many users of the software have stated both publically and
privately they would not have bought any Starfire materials if the program
did not exist so the owner of the game has profited from my software. I
don't mind this however because I have had fun creating it.
About 3-4 years ago, the owner of the game decided to create a new version. Mainly because he had inherited the existing version from an earlier
owner/designer and wanted to make his own changes. The existing version (3rd edition) was to be abandoned in favour of a new fourth edition. However, the new edition was viewed by many as inferior to the existing game and a schism developed in the Starfire community. My own preference is for third edition
and my Starfire Assistant program continued to grow but stayed with the
third edition rules. The game's owner stated publicly that he didn't want me
to develop a program for 4th anyway as a professional software company was
going to develop and sell one. That was over three years and so far they
haven't produced anything.
Based on the mailing list traffic more people were playing 3rd than
switching to 4th and I didn't want 3rd to die, I offered to develop a new
rule expansion for 3rd for free and let the owner approve it and sell it if
he wished and take all the profits. I put together a group of about 30 like-minded people and we produced a new expansion called the Unified Tech Manual. That went on sale and is still selling. Starfire Assistant was updated to match it. We then started on a larger project, the unification and updating of all
existing 3rdR rules into one large rulebook. Once again the agreement was
that we would create the document and hand it over. If he liked it, he could
sell it and keep the money. We just wanted the game to survive.
Meanwhile 4th edition had heavily criticised and in response,
the owner created a new update called Elite Starfire which was apparently an
improvement but didn't change the minds of the 3rd edition players about
which edition was better. So another update to the 4th edition rules called
Ultra Starfire was created and was due about the same time as the 3rd
edition Unified Rules.
At this point, the game owner's Marvin (easier than keep calling him the
game's owner <G>) said we weren't going fast enough with our work, even
though we were 90% complete, doing it as unpaid volunteers and he originally
wanted to kill 3rd edition anyway. He therefore said he was going to join
our design group. As the reason the group existed was because none of us
liked the way he designed games, conflict within the group soon ensued. He
declared he thought the new product was not going to be up to his standards
and he should take over. We pointed out that 1) He hadn't made a single
correction to the previous product. 2) He had final approval anyway. 3) None
of this was costing him money or time. 4) The reason we were doing this was
for people who didn't agree with his style of game design. Nevertheless he
declared he was taking over. An almighty bust-up followed with almost all of
the group leaving (including me) and stating that Marvin couldn't use any of
our original work. He also caused all of this upset without having his own
copy of the work we had done so he was left with nothing. Not the most
intelligent business decision I have ever witnessed.
He made a statement on the public Starfire list saying the work we had done
was terrible and that he was forming a new group to do it all over again. I
believe we had produced a very good document so I publicly offered him $1000
to release the so-called terrible work for free and I would throw in
everything we had done so he could get a big head start on his own version.
He refused. It was a stalemate. He had copyright on the original material on
which we had based the new ruleset so we couldn't release it and we had
copyright on the work we had done to improve it so he couldn't use it
either. That situation remains unresolved but I cannot see it changing due
to personal animosity between myself and Marvin
I pointed out on the mailing list that he could do what he liked with the
new group in terms of rules changes, but that the reality of the situation
was that vast majority of players used the rules that Starfire Assistant
supported. If he created different rules for Third, no one would use them
anyway. He therefore stated that he was banning any future updates to
Starfire Assistant. If I produced any further patches, he would sue me for
copyright infringement. This seemed incredibly vindictive as he was
punishing his own players in an attempt to somehow get at me but I think he
has reached the point of trying to prevent anyone playing original Third
Edition because he believes people will therefore have no alternative but to
play either Ultra Starfire or his new version of Third which will no doubt
look a lot like Ultra Starfire
I was extremely angry with this state of affairs but didn't want to get into
a legal fight. For the last six months I have left well alone and continued
to use Starfire Assistant at home only and made no attempt to distribute it.
However, I continue to get pressure for updates from my user base and I do
have a lot of fun updating the program and pleasure from satisfied users,
even if there is no monetary reward. Now I look back on this with a calmer
head, Marvin seems to be on sticky ground and I am wondering whether to push
the issue.
I have little knowledge of copyright law but the key points seem to be:
1) The program has been around for about 10 years and has been officialy
recognised by the games owner to the extent that he provided the copyright
text on the opening splash screen, has provided his own suggestions for
interface improvement and had a link on the official Starfire website to the
Starfire Assistant website.
2) Any user of the program will need to buy the Starfire rules to make use
of it.
3) There is no actual copying of the rules text anywhere in the program. The
program just has functionality that supports the rules.
4) He has stated that the existing v6.80 program is OK (presumably because
of 1) above) but that the slightest bug fix or an non-Starfire related
interface change will be a copyright violation. This seems to be complete
nonsense to me although I am a layman.
5) He has said publicly that other people can create Starfire programs with
optional rules if they also include support for the official rules but that
this doesn't apply to me because he doesn't trust me. He also stated that
Starfire Assistant would adversely affect his business. Apparently he is
concerned that any optional rules I create will cause people not to buy the
official rules. Whatever his beliefs, can he apply one rule to me and a
different one for other people?
6) Much of Starfire Assistant is management of resources, reporting
functionality and manipulation of data. Can this type of thing be copyright?
I would much welcome advice on my situation if I wanted to release an update to Starfire Assistant.
Is one option to change the names of everything Starfire related but leave
the functionality. I can understand names being copyrighted but can you
copyright a game rule or a game mechanic? Bearing in mind that none of this
is for commercial purposes, if in the game a force beam causes 10 damage at
range 5 and I create a pan-galactic gargle-blaster with the same firing
characteristics, is that a copyright violation. How similar do rules on
generation of star systems have to be before they are a copyright violation,
etc.
This is a hobby with which I have a lot of fun and I feel it has been ruined
by someone through spite rather than genuine concern over his business. Is
there anything I can do??
He is based in the US (Chicago) and I am in the UK.
Steve Walmsley
Answer:
Sorry but...US law only applies here for US-based residents.
Answer:
Sorry but...US law only applies here for US-based residents. Does that mean I cannot be sued for copyright infringement if I don't live in the US?
Steve