Bob Tarantino on the Dungeons & Dragons Open Game License

In this episode, Bob Tarantino, an entertainment lawyer at Dentons Canada LLP in Toronto and a PhD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School, discusses his dissertation, "If You Love Something, Set It Free: Open Content Copyright Licensing and Creative Cultural Expression." Tarantino's dissertation uses a study of the Dungeons & Dragons "open game license" to illustrate and investigate the use of open content licensing in practice. He begins by describing the prevailing consequentialist and deontological theories of copyright, as well as the "communicative" theory of copyright, and how it differs from the prevailing theories in prioritizing dialogue over control. He also explains the origin and purpose of the open content movement. He reflect on the creation and evolution of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. And he describes his qualitative study of participants in the commercial market for Dungeons & Dragons products and their subjective assessments of the open game license. Tarantino is on Twitter at @bobtarantino.

This episode was hosted by Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Frye is on Twitter at @brianlfrye.

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