Potential For Public Domain Release of the Rules

[David Jackson]

Perhaps you (and others) don't understand me.

What I would like to see is P&P revived.  Commercial release is not a viable
option.  I have tried contacting Hasbro in a dozen different ways, with
absolutely no success, in regards to purchasing the rights to P&P.  I have
tried contacting them, urging them to release P&P into the public domain,
with no success.

The last recourse is to produce an unauthorized / unofficial second edition,
which of course would be derivative of the first edition.  And I am
receiving staunch opposition to that here.

I guess my dream is of seeing a net version, completely free, of P&P.  A
version that we mold and form.  That we produce monster catalogs, treasure
indexes, and campaign worlds for.  But, once again - that is an
impossibility.

It's just such a shame that I game that I personally love will be lost to
the annals of history because of the niggling copyright holders.

David Jackson


-----Original Message-----
From: Paul L. Ming <pming at YT.SYMPATICO.CA>


>Hiya.
>
>>Yeah, but what about a completely revised version, which is very similar
to
>>the original?  (Preserving the original spirit, perhaps even the same
basic
>>mechanics, but revised completely).
>
>    So you wan't a 2nd ed P&P that is "the same but different"?  ;-)  What
>it will boil down to is this: "Derivitive Works"  Just ask E. Gary
>Gygax...T$R tried to convince the courts that they (T$R) owned EGG's
>imagination.  The thing was "Because he created AD&D, every other fantasy
>RPG he creates will be derived from the same manner of thinking; thus, a
>derivitive work of AD&D."  Yes, they were on crack, but they also had lots
>of $$$.  The battle never came to a verdict...TSR simply "out monied" him.
>
>    Anyway, with P&P, I think the same sort of thing might be used if
Hasbro
>(they do own P&P now, right?) found out and actually cared.
>
>^_^
>
>Denakhan the Arch-Mage
>