zhowar wrote:Well, I believe the copyright stays with the original owner. Ernie retains the copyright to the actual words written in the adventure. I believe this was listed in the auction. The buyer of the auction owns only the physical item, and not the copyright on the words. Ernie would have to give permission to publish this as an adventure, or to sell copies of the pdf.
mbassoc2003 wrote:It wouldn't be copyright infringement if the seller were the copyright holder. Besides, is it not the same as Bottle City going to print after Mike spent $3600 of the original map and notes? I would consider it fair game for a seller to sell PDFs having already sold the original, just as I wasn't pissed when a second photocopy of City of the Revenant was put up for sale six months after I paid $600 for my copy. It is the seller's IP to do with as he sees fit, and I'm sure Paul would honour any request for refund if the buyer were unhappy with future developements, as would the IP owner.
FormCritic wrote:TSR used to purchase first publishing rights to artwork...like for the cover of Dragon, for instance.At least that was their policy in the golden age. Also, I would suppose that the work of staff artists would also belong to TSR.
Deadlord39 wrote:I'm not sure I see the value in buying a "unique" item, then. If a cheap PDF can be knocked off at the whim of the original writer, does it not devaluate the "unique"? I'd compare it to the OB3/PDF issue, but OB3 is not unique, so the devaluation is minimal at best.
red_bus wrote:I suppose it probably also depends on what the item is - for example, a photocopy of a piece which stays in the hands of the creator would be devalued if a finished printed version comes out. If on the other hand, the manuscript was different from the finished version (perhaps revealing some of the author's thinking) that would keep a lot of its value.