Devin Asures's page

DM Gremdel Todd,
I'm well aware that there's nothing I can legally do to Andrik for stealing my character's name or Arixus' since he's not looking to profit from it. It also alarms me that you're defending plagiarism and intellectual property theft so vehemently. This is the theft of intellectual property and it is also plagiarism.

You're correct in that you say a name can't be copyrighted, but it can be trademarked, and trademarks fall under intellectual property law.

Now as for plagiarism, allow me to quote from the wikipedia entry concerning the definition of plagiarism:

"Plagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work."

I'd say that directly mimicing the names "Arixus Phae" and "Alistair Lancerey" (Yes, both first and last together, not just "Allistair" or "Phae"; it's the combination that makes them unique) is definitely plagiarism.
Clearly Andrik was trying to pass those names off as his own original work, since you had to ask him about Arixus and I and he never volunteered the information of where he stole the names, or made a public disclaimer.

I will be emailing Andrik privately from now on, as you have requested this thread to return to its original purpose.

Devin does have concerns about the name Allistair Lancerey being ripped off.
I don't consider having the names of my characters plagiarized "giving them good use".
After reading what's gone on here, I am familiar with Andrik, and I find it very outrageous that he's ripping off character names from people he used to role play with. It's pretty obvious that he took "Arixus Phae" and "Allistar Lancerey" (sic) from Arixus' player and I. I could have written it off as a coincidence if he'd only used one name, but he's using both first names and surnames of our creations, and that's just not on.

It doesn't matter if the characters are different or if they've perished in the game or not; this is still plagiarism.

Andrik, I'm extremely disappointed in you and my opinion of you has lowered. I can't understand why you've done this, as you always seemed friendly and personable when we played together. I never suspected you'd be so unoriginal as to steal my intellectual property and Arixus'.

I realise there's not much I can do about you stealing from me, but I'm glad the truth is out there and that anyone who reads this will know that you're not using your own original ideas.

How about next time you call your characters Rand Al'Thor, or Polgara the Sorceress? Throw in a Drizzt while you're at it. What you've done already equates to that.