8.3 KiB
[DC?][RT?] Magic Patents, Trolls, Scabs, and Open Source Spells
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Author: u/ToaKraka https://i.imgur.com/OQGHleQ.png*
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URL: http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2016/05/24/magic-patents-trolls-scabs-and-open-source-spells
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Score: 18
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Created: 2016-05-24T13:05:38
Post:
Comments:
u/gabbalis [+11] (4 hours later)
I dunno, being a patent troll in an industry that's integral to the livelihoods of murderhobos seems like a Bad Idea.
u/alexanderwales [+14] Time flies like an arrow (5 hours later)
Being anyone in an industry that's integral to murderhobos seems like a bad idea.
u/kaukamieli [+1] (6 days later)
You just do a lot of favors for the biggest and baddest murderhobos.
u/MaddoScientisto [+11] (4 hours later)
Unsong has an interesting take on copyrighting spells.
For who hasn't read it (and really should) basically in that world people can speak names of God to achieve various effects. A few companies started employing spell-bruteforcing sweat shops in order to discover and then patent a large amount of names, then they created a sort of police body (UNSONG).
UNSONG agents have the name of the spell tatooed over their ear and some other stuff I forgot and basically can track down anyone who speaks a name without buying its scroll. They have effectively a monopoly on spells.
The very first chapter sparked quite a bit of discussion because the protagonist, which works in a name spell sweatshop, accidentally discovers a new name by appending some random words to a name displayed on his terminal just a few seconds after the end of his turn.
People were wondering who actually owned the name in that case.
In another instance the protagonist gets fined because he once used the awakening name without a license because he was sleepy and forgot his scroll home
u/luminarium [+5] (14 hours later)
Very interesting article. Several problems I see:
- I would have just solved the problem education issues are solved in real life: With a prestigious academic institution. The buyer (student) would be able to trust in the institution because the institution has a reputation to uphold, and the institution values its reputation because it can charge for giving an education and the reputation determines how much it can charge.
- If that somehow can't be done, the solution would be how financial transactions with a similar problem are handled in real life: with a clearinghouse or escrow acting as middleman. The buyer gives the money to the trusted third party and the spell is also given to the third party, the third party validates it, then allows the trade to go through. Certain 'keys' can be used to prevent the middleman from gaining the spell for free in the process, etc.
- The only way to enforce the patent on Melf's Acid Arrow would be if the world also has a Worldspell of Detecting Use of Melf's Acid Arrow. And your standard D&D setting doesn't have a government that is able to do such a thing. Now it sounds like you're also going the EULA route, which leads to...
- The EULA on Melf's Acid Arrow is more complex than the acid arrow effect itself. Considering wizards have to actually create the effect of the spell, in battle where every second counts, no one is going to want to use a spell that has this intron attached to it. It's either cast Acid Arrow once every round or cast Melf's Acid Arrow once every 2 rounds... the latter will have crappy DPS.
- Also since the wizard using the spell is manifesting each component of Melf's Acid Arrow, he should be able to tell which part of the spell is the EULA, and then just strip that out. It's like if I buy instructions to a recipe and the last step of the recipe says 'pay the creator', I can just go ahead with every step of that recipe except that last step.
- No one is going to use an Open Source Acid Arrow that's only got a 50% chance of working if there's also a Melf's Acid Arrow that works every time. Battles are a life and death kind of thing, who's going to be a miser with 2gp when their life is on the line? It would be like trying out alternative medicine when there are chemotherapy regimens known to work. Only people doing that are either uninformed or are abjectly poor.
u/None [+1] (2 days later)
If that somehow can't be done, the solution would be how financial transactions with a similar problem are handled in real life: with a clearinghouse or escrow acting as middleman. The buyer gives the money to the trusted third party and the spell is also given to the third party, the third party validates it, then allows the trade to go through. Certain 'keys' can be used to prevent the middleman from gaining the spell for free in the process, etc.
Isn't this basically the patent system?
u/luminarium [+3] (2 days later)
Nope, it's the escrow system.
u/ToaKraka [+4] https://i.imgur.com/OQGHleQ.png (a minute later)
A choice quote:
1. Say, Melf sets a casting price. Every casting of Melf’s Acid Arrow costs a mere 2 gp. Pretty cheap.
2. A 3rd-level wizard, super excited to cast 2nd-level wizard spells from her magic book, purchases a copy of Melf’s from the local scroll store for 150 gp and signs the End User License Agreement to exercise the patented spell.
3. Built into the fabric of the spell is a "magic casting fee processing unit".
4. Whenever the 3rd-level wizard casts Melf’s Acid Arrow in the heat of battle, the EULA activates.
5. An automatic 2-gp transfer occurs from her gold pouch around her waist to Melf’s account managed by the Transmuter Bankers (less transfer, magic, and processing fees to the Transmuter Bankers).
6. Should the 3rd-level wizard run out of cash, the spell won’t activate. She’ll need to kill more monsters and roll them for cash to pay the future fee.
u/Aabcehmu112358 [+3] Utter Fallacy (3 days later)
Is this 5e again, or no? Because if it's not, and it is 3.5, then this seems like it's handled pretty easily with the use of scrolls. Namely, that Identify is a 1^(st) level spell which tells you the effect of a magic item, including scrolls. If the party can't find anyone they trust to cast a single first level spell (which should be hard, considering it's pretty likely that the party itself includes a wizard who almost certain knows it), they probably shouldn't be trusted with handling spells in general.
u/ToaKraka [+3] https://i.imgur.com/OQGHleQ.png (3 days later)
Identify is a 1st level spell which tells you the effect of a magic item, including scrolls.
I think the items that the author calls "scrolls" in this article are just non-magical instruction manuals for spells ("arcane magical writings"?), not magical single-use "scrolls".
u/Aabcehmu112358 [+3] Utter Fallacy (3 days later)
That just means that we can step down to Read Magic, which is a 0^(th) level spell for anyone besides Paladins and Rangers, though admittedly it seems like it gives somewhat less detailed information than Identify. Given that it explicitly calls out to the spells effect text, it still seems likely to me that crafting a spell that is a convincing fake would take enough time and effort as to not be profitable.
u/edwardkmett [+2] (a day later)
... or the seller casts the spell while the purchaser watches.
u/ToaKraka [+2] https://i.imgur.com/OQGHleQ.png (a day later)
The seller could easily cast some random spell that has nothing to do with the spell instructions that are being sold.
"I want to learn to make a webpage. Sell me a book on it."
"Okay. Here's an HTML instruction manual." (presents an XML instruction manual with "HTML" plastered onto the cover)
"How do I know that that's a webpage instruction manual? Show me some actual webpage coding."
"Sure." (opens computer, types up a simple webpage in HTML, and opens it in a browser) "Is that fine?"
"I guess." (hands over money, takes XML instruction manual, walks away)
"Tee-hee! What a chump."