RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8
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Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 8
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Shouldn't items that reference mithril (tm) (which IIRC is trademarked by somebody) as apposed to mithral (the OGL name for the material) be disqualified? I'm not sure if a trademark violation is as serious as a copyright violation. I've noticed a LOT of items that make this mistake.
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Quite frankly, I hope that everyone has better things to worry about with regards to these entries, like their actual quality as opposed to stupid IP claims.
Even if the spelling mithril is trademarked, it has to be close to being genericized by now through 25+ years of most gamers not knowing that there were two spellings and no one should give a shit.
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Aside from being a trade mark, judges looks for people who pay attention to details and know the IP for which they are working for. Mithril might seem like a small error, but it can make the difference for judges.
You know what, it's part of being a good entrant that you know your material. That means knowing that mithril(tm) is NOT mithral. It's the same with admantine (misspelled as adamantite or adamantium or some other incorrect version). A lot of these errors are leftovers from AD&D when TSR/WotC made reference to those things. However, that's not an excuse. It's too darn easy to look up the spelling. It's in the core book. In a contest where they tell you that spelling, punctuation, grammar, and format matter, you better believe it can make a difference. It's the same for copyright of Kleenex (tm), Vaasline(tm) and a host of other items. You may not think it's important. However, in world filled with lawyers ready to send out "Cease and Desist" letter, it makes a big deal. IP and copyright have to be protected at all times or the holder may lose the right. Just because it doesn't matter to you, doesn't mean it doesn't matter a lot to someone else.
That means knowing that mithril(tm) is NOT mithral. It's the same with admantine (misspelled as adamantite or adamantium or some other incorrect version
Well, they obviously are the same, anyone who sees the mithral chain shirt in the CRB can tell that. we just have to do the copyright kabuki theater and pretend that we are not in destinction without a difference land so to speak. The various spellings of adamantine bother me a little more honestly, but it is the same frankly preposterous deal.
In a contest where they tell you that spelling, punctuation, grammar, and format matter, you better believe it can make a difference. It's the same for copyright of Kleenex (tm), Vaasline(tm) and a host of other items. You may not think it's important. However, in world filled with lawyers ready to send out "Cease and Desist" letter, it makes a big deal. IP and copyright have to be protected at all times or the holder may lose the right. Just because it doesn't matter to you, doesn't mean it doesn't matter a lot to someone else.
Well I hope that whoever managed to trademark mithril doesn't take advice from the former owners of the kleenex and vaseline trademarks since those are the textbook examples of genericized trademarks.
It might be copyrighted and not trademarked though, meaning that this really becomes a question of a publisher covering their ass from potentially out of control IP holders, which the world sadly had far too many of for comfort.
Mithril is the IP of the same group that controls J.R.R. Tolkien's IPs. I think they know their business. Check the wikipedia on mithril.
That's what I assumed which is unfortunate be because they are pretty firmly not the good guys when dealing with IP law. Exhibit A being the reason that nothing from the Silmarillion can be in the Hobbit movies.
Interestingly the wikipedia article seems to think that it was spelled “mithril” in 1st edition though.
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That's what I assumed which is unfortunate be because they are pretty firmly not the good guys when dealing with IP law. Exhibit A being the reason that nothing from the Silmarillion can be in the Hobbit movies.
Interestingly the wikipedia article seems to think that it was spelled “mithril” in 1st edition though.
There were a lot of third party folks that were using that spelling at t he time, such as the late Dave Hargrave's Arduin books.
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This would be the sort of thing an editor would catch and an easy mistake to correct. Auto-disqualification would be overkill.