Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Summertime ...

Okay, it is clearly summertime. I have lists of things to do that are long enough to frighten a fearless paladin to tears. The only things that get done involve the kids, or simple things like, oh, say, buying milk.
Then again, there is the European Championship (soccer folks, yes Mike, I am talking about soccer again). I taped todays' game, AND the hour's worth of ESPN programs afterwards to insure I caught any overtime or penalty kick finish. My wife taped a quarterfinal game for me a few days ago, and, well, it went to penalty kicks so I had to watch the end online. TODAY though, was different. The kids and I spent the afternoon at SeaWorld (yes, it is San Antonio, yes, we have season passes) so we planned to watch the taped game after dinner. My wife is on back-up call and worked late so she got home at the beginning, she asked, "Do you know the results?"
I said, "No, please don't tell me anything."
Well, she didn't (boy do I love my wife). It was a great game. I wish I had seen it. ?? Yes, technical difficulties blocked out Germany's second goal (had to watch replays), Turkey's comeback goal to tie 2-2 (yes, replays again), AND Germany's winning goal during the last few minutes of the game. She knew that there were "blackout times" due to several lighting strokes due to things people said at work, but didn't know what part of the game they were in. Grumble.
Funny thing is, at the beginning of the European Championship I said that I thought it would be Germany and Spain in the finals. DS#2 has focused on that and is rooting for those teams (he wants Spain to "crush" Germany-I don't think that'll happen, or even predict who'll win). He was a bit miffed when I was rooting for Turkey. I had to explain what underdogs they were and that simply making it this far was amazing. We'll have to see if Spain can beat Russia tomorrow. I'll tape that too, won't be on the internet until I watch it. Yeah, going to have to miss at least part of it, DS#1 has soccer practice ;).

Muhahaha! See, I scare Mike away (one of the 5 of you that read this right now) and then I answer his question.
"Man, if other people do this copyright thing you can do the 4e stuff too, you know the best lawyer in the business."

Um, yes, I know one of the best intellectual property lawyers in the country (she is actually rated in the top 100 now); however, even though she is a gamer, she hasn't looked at the license AND she deals with patent law. I happen to know she is involved in a big case right now (let's hope she wins one for the little guy!) so I haven't asked her legal opinion.

One of the parents of a child on the neighborhood swim team probably does more copyright/trademark filings and protection than she does, and he and I discussed the 4e GSL on Monday night. It was an interesting discussion and I'll be talking to him some more. (Now you can scream)

Yeah, that was a total cop-out wasn't it? Can't really talk about it right now, but yes, people can make 4e material using elements of copyright and fair-use laws. Is this a good long-term strategy? I don't know. Can you combine using the GSL for some products and then making "generic" products clearly usable with 4e? Well, my guess is that the GSL would be revoked, but I am not really sure.
Some publishers are clearly going to avoid the GSL while publishing 4e material. It is an option, but it is a complicated option. I have the luxury of sitting back a bit to see what others are doing. Right now it is most likely I will stay generic with GU and publish some 4e ideas with other publishers. We'll see.

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