From: Jason Hockley [jh39@ukc.ac.uk] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 6:34 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] -Trade marks and copyrights was: Cetaceans ----- Original Message ----- > > And even if you could, the concept of "animals which have been made > sentient" > > predates his publishing career by several hundred years. More recently you > don't > > have to look any farther THE PLANET OF THE APES to find a pre-Brin use of > the > > concept. > > Of course in the Novel "Monkeyplanet" on which the films are based, the > planet orbits Betleguese. The whole "It's Earth all along" thing was the > invention of the screen writer. As for the origins of uplift in SF, H.G. > Wells did it in "The Island of Dr. Moreau". A novel I have ripped off > countless times for RPGs. I was thinking of this through those arguments too. I wondered, given that "The Island of Doctor Moreau" is over a hundred years old now, where copyrigth on that stands. Could you plunder it for possible titles to the Cetacean sourcebook? "Moreau's Children" sounds a little trite, but I'm sure you people more talented than I could come up with something. Jason *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: David R. Crowell [gpfarm-dave@northnet.org] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 6:08 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] -Trade marks and copyrights was: Cetaceans ----- Original Message ----- From: Justin Bacon To: Sent: Monday, January 01, 2001 7:31 PM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Cetaceans > > > Dracondis wrote: > > > He does hold a copywrite on the concept of 'Uplifts', as it applies to animals > > brought from to sentience from pre-sentience. If you doubt me, contact his > > publisher and ask them. > > No. He owns a copyRIGHT to his Uplift novels. You can't copyright *concepts* at > all. If you could there would be NO non-TSR RPGs! > > And even if you could, the concept of "animals which have been made sentient" > predates his publishing career by several hundred years. More recently you don't > have to look any farther THE PLANET OF THE APES to find a pre-Brin use of the > concept. Of course in the Novel "Monkeyplanet" on which the films are based, the planet orbits Betleguese. The whole "It's Earth all along" thing was the invention of the screen writer. As for the origins of uplift in SF, H.G. Wells did it in "The Island of Dr. Moreau". A novel I have ripped off countless times for RPGs. > > If Brin actually did have a copyright to the word "uplift" or the concept of > "uplifting", BLUE PLANET is already screwed -- they use the term in the Player's > Handbook. I think they even used it in BPv1 I personally think its not the best choice for naming the supplement, and Steve Jackson could have a legitimate gripe, seeing as how he has published a gaming supplement titled "Uplift". And before someone brings up Palladium vs Todd MacFarlane again, Palladium changed the name of their game from "Nightspawn" to "Nightbane" to avoid a long legal fight with Todd over his comicbook "Spawn". And the trademark of "Spawn". The lawyers all said Palladium would likely win in the end but it would cost them a bundle to do so, Palladium declined to spend the money. You trade mark a work or phrase you use to describe or name a product you sell that is not precisely the same in meaning or spelling as the standard English generic term for that product. Thus you can't trademark a "burger" but could trademark "Krusty Burgerz". You can have a real fight on your hands if your product name becomes the generic name for that sort of product: Kleenex or Scotch tape are examples of this. It is getting harder for the parent companies to maintain trademark for those names. > > Justin Bacon > triad3204@aol.com > > *************************************************************************** > To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com > with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. > > *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: David R. Crowell [gpfarm-dave@northnet.org] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 7:17 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] -Trade marks and copyrights was: Cetaceans ----- Original Message ----- From: Jason Hockley > Could you plunder it for possible titles to the Cetacean > sourcebook? "Moreau's Children" sounds a little trite, but > I'm sure you people more talented than I could come up with > something. > > Jason > It would certainly put accross the idea that cetaceans aren't all Flipper and Free Willy! *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: David R. Crowell [gpfarm-dave@northnet.org] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 7:29 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - First Colony I have to admit that when I got my copy of "First Colony" the other day, I was less than pleased. I opened the book and almost half of it was taken up with adventures I would likely never run. Phooey! Krill of the worst sort. Then having read the rest of the book I decided to look over the adventures, and changed my mind about them completely. They actually present quite a lot of background, and information on how life in Haven works, without just droning on for ever in an endless list of bussinesses and NPCs. They also include hints to the Moderator on possible follow ups and ways to involve diverse characters in the adventure, as well as how to change things without destroying the basic adventure. Well done, although I still would have liked more detail on Haven itself, perhaps in a revived UC? From: Sean Michael Whipkey [highway@cstone.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 10:40 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Netrunning (was: Cetaceans) Ml10@aol.com wrote: > The visual interface: > In early 2000, a version of Doom was modified so that each > process running on a computer would be represented in the game > by a monster. To kill off a process, the system admin would run > around and shoot them. Given 10 years of serious developement, > you'll see something that starts to resemble the Net/Matrix of > CP/SR. Bizarre. I was just reading some of the BOFH stories last week where they talked about doing that. If you want to see dangerous feedback, you should read the BOFH. :-) http://bofh.ntk.net/Bastard.html SeanMike -- SeanMike Whipkey - "The Man. The goatee. The reputation." - Kimmet "What the hell is wrong with that boy?!?" - Adrienne Uphoff "What the French lack in reason they make up for in sheer gall." - Onion "Did anyone else read this and think of SeanMike?" - Leybourne *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Sean Michael Whipkey [highway@cstone.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 10:41 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Netrunning (was: Cetaceans) kabael@softhome.net wrote: > I've read the book. I love Gibson. He's a great writer, but he is certainly > not realistic. He did, after all, include a "MAX REVERSE" key on the decks in _Neuromancer_. Fun to read? Yes. I love his writing. Realistic? Not hardly, though the movie interpretation of New Rose Hotel seemed more realistic than the story. :-) SeanMike -- SeanMike Whipkey - "The Man. The goatee. The reputation." - Kimmet "What the hell is wrong with that boy?!?" - Adrienne Uphoff "What the French lack in reason they make up for in sheer gall." - Onion "Did anyone else read this and think of SeanMike?" - Leybourne *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Sean Michael Whipkey [highway@cstone.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 10:43 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Cetaceans Dracondis wrote: > captain was particularly religious. Towards the end he starts seeing his > Goddess swimming around him more frequently, and gains little bits of info > about the situation from her as she chatters in the pre-sentient language. I > can't recall what they call it. Its been about 10 years since I read it. From what I recall of GURPS Uplift, it was "trinary". Humans could learn it, with some difficulty, but could not speak it without special implants. SeanMike -- SeanMike Whipkey - "The Man. The goatee. The reputation." - Kimmet "What the hell is wrong with that boy?!?" - Adrienne Uphoff "What the French lack in reason they make up for in sheer gall." - Onion "Did anyone else read this and think of SeanMike?" - Leybourne *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Jeb Boyt [jeboyt@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 11:33 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Cetaceans Justin, A couple of things that I would like to see in a cetacean sourcebook would be a discussion of the different dolphin species that have been uplifted and their cultural/social differences, a similar discussion of the distinctions between the coastal and pelagic Orca communities, and a discussion of the existing Fin communities on Earth. A description of the Fin communities on Earth would benefit not only in the generation of BP characters but would also make the sourcebook a worthwhile complement to A World of Hurt. I am looking forward to your sourcebook. Jeb _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Jeb Boyt [jeboyt@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 12:01 PM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Cetaceans ----Original Message Follows---- From: Justin Bacon Date: Mon, 01 Jan 2001 00:17:27 -0600 SONG OF THE SEA: The Cetacean Sourcebook; or SONG OF THE SEA: Cetaceans on the World of Blue Planet ================================ Nice. I was thinking of something along the lines of SWIMMING BETWEEN THE WORLDS which is probably too long. "The Cetacean Sourcebook" is fine as a subtitle. Jeb _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: kabael@softhome.net Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 12:07 PM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - more Cetaceans Some other stuff that would be good for the book might include a discussion about acceptable hobbies to while away the time, and less acceptable ones. What does a fin do for fun? What _shouldn't_ they be doing for fun? I mentioned this to my roommate and he's crying out for "interspecies porn" and "more fins doing baggies"! He's a little strange :) Fin youth gangs would be neat though. Similarly, Justin, have you see the recent Adam Warren Dirty Pair comic miniseries? I had a "stone killer whale" I think you should see, or at least show the artist for the book :) Derek Guder - kabael@softhome.net - ICQ# 24193592 Opinionated reviewer extraordinaire *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: David Chart [hist@dchart.demon.co.uk] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 1:09 PM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Trademarks (was Cetaceans) --On 1/1/01 18:39 -0600 Justin Bacon wrote: >> Also, it is not normal practice in book publishing to trademark >> everything in sight, and you cannot trademark a correctly spelled word >> (hence all the funky mis-spellings in product names), > > Wrong. You can trademark words, and this is done all the time. What you > can't do is trademark a correctly spelled word which describes the > product you're selling. Having looked at the UK Patent Office website, it's not that simple. You cannot trademark a correctly spelled word which could be taken to describe the product you are selling, in a normal fashion. It need not *actually* describe it. In a particular example (decision O/327/00, available from http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/legal/decisions/exparte2000.htm) a trademark on 'orange' was refused for clothes, even if none of the clothes to be covered by the trademark would actually be orange. I have no idea how the relevant authorities would apply this to RPGs. For example, "Fresh Confidence" was held to be non-distinctive as applied to toothpaste, on the grounds that granting such confidence might be held to be a feature of the product. Thus, I would imagine that Generic Universal Roleplaying System would not have been registrable in the UK, although it would be now, because usage has established a particular link. And then Blue Leaf was debarred because it conflicted with Brown Leaf, which means that the UK office might well overturn Tunnels and Trolls, and possibly even Chivalry and Sorcery. Ah, isn't IP law wonderful. David Chart *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: :gobion: [gobion@btinternet.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 1:35 PM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - interesting resources :o) Here are a couple of interesting resources i thought you guys might find interesting :o) "Once a late 20th century research station, it is now a thriving underwater comunity on the continental margin East of Australia." (sic.) http://www.monochrome.org.uk/Martinez.html "OCEANPUNK" "Cyberpunk meets the high seas in Morniman's excelent article." (sic.) http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Fuji/3598/source.html :o) :gobion: www.commcore.f2s.com gobion@btinternet.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message.