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Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, however, I mix another’s work with my own. First, the goofy stuff. Here’s a meme about the OGL conflict.

Now, for a strange point about WotC’s approach.

As you all should know by now, the specific expression of a game rule can (in theory) be protected through copyright. It still has to jump through the hoops of being creative enough for copyright and avoid the merger doctrine, but at least copyright could apply to that expression. So, simply adding “the specific expression of” to the beginning of “their sentence “the methods, processes, procedures, and routines” would avoid our arguments about copyrighting game mechanics and make this a tougher case. However, despite my 14-year insistence they do so, and now all these other attorneys (at long last) telling them the same thing, they still aren’t doing it. It’s a clear example of Bodine’s Law of the Internet, and in fact inspired me creating that rule in the first place. TL;DR: Without a clear indicator of the author’s intent, it’s often impossible to tell the difference between arrogant deceit and genuine ignorance/incompetence. Does WotC continue on this path because they’re idiots, or because they think we are. Either way, after all we’ve been through, that would make WotC a bunch of idiots.

Even more amazing, my rule hasn’t gained a lot of traction.

Okay, that sentence was a bonus “something stupid.”

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