Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zorch!vsi1!lmb
From: lmb@vsi1.UUCP (Larry Blair)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Legal aspects of Computer version of the game RISK
Keywords: Copyright, Legal, RISK and Yahtzee (The Games)
Message-ID: <934@vsi1.UUCP>
Date: 17 Aug 88 00:06:01 GMT
References: <364@soleil.UUCP> <3309@crash.cts.com> <3498@rayssd.ray.com>
Reply-To: lmb@vsi1.UUCP (Larry Blair)
Organization: VICOM Systems Inc., San Jose, CA
Lines: 17

In article <3498@rayssd.ray.com> gmp@rayssd.RAY.COM (Gregory M. Paris) writes:
=In article <3309@crash.cts.com> andym@crash.CTS.COM (Andy Micone) writes:
=> A computer game version of a copyrighted board game is a derivative work,
=> and you cannot produce and distribute a computer game version of RISK
=> without risking legal action against you. By having a copyright, Parker
=> Brothers has exclusive rights to all derivative works of the board game.
=
=Sorry for so much included text, but I had wondered about this when the
=computer version of Yahtzee was posted to comp.sources.games a while
=back.  It would seem to me that the author (and distributor?) of that
=game would be in the same boat as the hypothetical RISK computer-gamer
=mentioned above.  True?

The copyright, if there was one, for Yahtzee has long has long since expired.
I've forgotten the exact date it was invented (it was a question on Jeopardy!
recently), but it is a very old game.  Besides, isn't Yahtzee a derivative of
poker?