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Proclone · 12-04-2003, 09:34 PM

I don't really think 'enforcement' would be effective. Unlike real life patent infrigement in a mod community isn't binding. However we have a fairly small community of modders here, and I think anyone abusing the system and not giving credit where it was due would be found out pretty fast and snubbed.

The whole idea works circularly... as an example, say you come up with a new way of using the super powers that no one's 'patented' yet. You submit the idea and the idea is posted on the "pending" list.

At this point it would still be "secret" as the moderators ( whoever would be trusted with teh job of filtering the 'patents') checked to make sure that the idea was a valid one and that no one else already had claims to it. Once they clear the idea it would be posted and dated for everyone to see.

Now imagine someone came along and used that idea in a mod and posted it claiming that they came up with it themselves. They might be telling the truth, however the 'patent' would have a published date with it as mentionned earlier and it would be pretty obvious which came first. Should the infringer argue that they had the idea for a long time and just kept it secret then the question comes up as to why they didnt submit the idea so THEY would get credited for it.

I don't think any strict enforcement would be desireable, after all the modder in the example could very well have come up with the idea themselves and thus done nothing wrong in not crediting. The thing is that people who rip off others' ideas don't tend to do it just once, so I have a tendancy to think that any 'serious' non-crediter would be plainly obvious.

In the end the cycle encourages people to share their ideas to begin with in order to be given proper credit for their findings.

12-04-2003, 09:34 PM	#8 (permalink)
Proclone Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 400	I don't really think 'enforcement' would be effective. Unlike real life patent infrigement in a mod community isn't binding. However we have a fairly small community of modders here, and I think anyone abusing the system and not giving credit where it was due would be found out pretty fast and snubbed. The whole idea works circularly... as an example, say you come up with a new way of using the super powers that no one's 'patented' yet. You submit the idea and the idea is posted on the "pending" list. At this point it would still be "secret" as the moderators ( whoever would be trusted with teh job of filtering the 'patents') checked to make sure that the idea was a valid one and that no one else already had claims to it. Once they clear the idea it would be posted and dated for everyone to see. Now imagine someone came along and used that idea in a mod and posted it claiming that they came up with it themselves. They might be telling the truth, however the 'patent' would have a published date with it as mentionned earlier and it would be pretty obvious which came first. Should the infringer argue that they had the idea for a long time and just kept it secret then the question comes up as to why they didnt submit the idea so THEY would get credited for it. I don't think any strict enforcement would be desireable, after all the modder in the example could very well have come up with the idea themselves and thus done nothing wrong in not crediting. The thing is that people who rip off others' ideas don't tend to do it just once, so I have a tendancy to think that any 'serious' non-crediter would be plainly obvious. In the end the cycle encourages people to share their ideas to begin with in order to be given proper credit for their findings.