From:	"Jason Carter, Nightstalker" <CARTER@***.EDU>
Subject:	Copyright: This is really hard to decide!
Date:	Mon, 5 Apr 93 22:35:30 CET

Personally, I would lean more towards the public domain idea, but I have a few
reservations.

First thing is credit. If anyone were to use stories, characters, or ideas that
I contributed to the board I would want credit. Now I'm not talking about I
want 1% of the profits if someone used my characters, but I'd be damn pissed if
I noticed them running around in some book or movie without it being mentioned
that they were created by me.

I think this hold true to me more for the characters that I personally post then
those I've had a part in developing. It would hold more true for characters I'd
help develop than for the stories I was a part of.

To throw out a few silly examples:
If Raven the Mage, Nightstalker, or Cerise were to turn up somewhere (say in a
FASA product) without at least attributation to myself I'd be looking for a
lawyer.
If the slime duo Roger Quention and General Wendell Trevor showed up and I
(and Dark Elf and others) didn't get any credit, I'd be pretty mad.
If the MagnaTech saga were made into a basis for a movie or campaign book I'd
be unhappy if the entire Shadowtk board didn't get any credit.

The second problem I'd have would be the long narratives like the various run
logs that have been posted. If I found the Rescue of Highlander parts 1 to 3
published somewhere (or anywhere) without my expressed permission I'd be royally
pissed off.

This of course leaves us sitting at the place were we began in the first place
anyway. Unfortunately, this cannot be done with a NAGEE style copyright because
there is just too much interactive work being done here.

Not helping much,
Jason J Carter
The Nightstalker