Characters and music I understand. But to what extent are gameplay elements covered by copyright? This form letter from the United States Copyright Office appears to say not much:HJRodrigo wrote:the IP of another company without first obtaining permission. This includes gameplay elements.
"Methods for playing it" appears to refer to gameplay elements. And Capcom v. Data East shows that characters aren't covered to the extent that they follow from stereotypes.Copyright does not protect the idea for a game, its name or title, or the method or methods for playing it. Nor does copyright protect any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in developing, merchandising, or playing a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles. Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form.
