A question of copyrights

Anedhel

Alright, this is all theoretical, so don't freak out! This is also mostly aimed at the admins, although I'd like to get input from people who might take something like this seriously.

First: Are Achaean characters considered the intellectual property of IRE? For that matter, is all of the content of Achaea IRE's Intellectual Property? I have no idea how MUDs go about that kind of thing, but I'm sure there has to be some kind of protection against others taking a MUD's content/ideas, right?

The reason I ask is this: How would The People Who Run Things (probably Sarapis' call, in the end, I suspect) feel about Achaeans in effect ghostwriting stories/novellas set within the scope of the game? I'm thinking e-book format, since that's way easiest, and I also suspect that there are a fair few Achaeans that'd make publishing e-books concerning the game worth it (not to mention the allure of possibly drawing in other players, perhaps?). Given the comfort people who play this game have with paying for entertainment of the text variety, it doesn't seem far-fetched you might be able to make small but predictable income from low-cost e-books, specially if it reflects things they're already fond of (IC happenings, characters they may be familiar with, etc.).

I confess, the idea came to me while reading (surprise surprise!) a Discworld novel- while Mr. Pratchett is, quite frankly, a genius, I suppose multiple authors could achieve a similar effect- stories told from different perspectives and characters, each adhering to its author's 'voice,' which, quite frankly, -I- would be willing to spend money on. The idea of seeing Achaea from other players' perspectives is fascinating.

Of course, since this is a business, the central idea is money. To be honest, while there are probably fairer arrangements to be found, I suspect the easiest would be to use the ghostwriting model, where the authors get paid a flat fee for what they produce, and the owner of the content (IRE, in this case, after purchase) controls its distribution and profits. I personally wouldn't mind that arrangement.

I wonder if the People Who Run Things would be interested? There are a multitude of things that need to be addressed before it takes off, as nearly everything does, but knowing whether it's a possibility or not would be nice.

Sarapis

People are welcome to write books in our settings for non-commercial use, but not commercial use. There's no business to be had selling books to Achaeans in any case - the audience is far too small.

Anedhel

Fair enough! Thanks for the quick answer