Robert Hovden, a physics professor famous for pushing the boundaries of copyright law, has successfully filed the first copyright on a Magic: The Gathering deck.
As detailed in a recent article by author Cory Doctorow, Hovden has a history of filing copyright claims for the sole purpose of identifying “…some of the internal contradictions and bizarre results of copyright’s applications.” The deck in question, titled “Angels and Demons”, is a mix of Vintage-era cards that holds virtually no competitive viability, however the potential movements set in motion by the copyright could have a substantial ripple effect on Magic as a whole.
While a somewhat unlikely scenario, Hovden’s experiment proves that Magic players could theoretically copyright deck ideas with the intention of preventing other players from using that exact decklist in competitive environments. It also begins to muddy the waters for third-party tournament organizers and websites that host decklists, presumably for anyone to copy and play.
So what do you think of Hovden’s copyrighted decklist? Could this experiment have drastic future implications for Magic? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Read the original article from Cory Doctorow.