merchant Infinite Earth campaign is impossible!

[Byteknight]

I suppose one economic model that might work is to become a "copyright hound" to help defray the cost of a conveyor.

You scout out a world, pick up that copy of When Harry Met Sally, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and submit an application to some Homeline govt. body for copyright protection.

For a - I dunno - $25,000 application fee for a copyright ($100,000 for a scientific patent) and a 3 month waiting period, you get copyright protection for 5 years.

Every month you will get $0.25 per broadcast/webcast/download of that movie around the Homeline world. The GM can roll some dice to determine how many broadcasts per month. Every year, the royalties you get will decrease by 20% until you get nothing in year 6.

Music and Movies:

Pop-culture alternate (Star Trek, the Beatles, etc) would be ===> 1 to 100,000 (1d10 x 1d100x 1d100) broadcasts/webcasts/downloads/month x $0.25 in year 1.

Hobbyists/ Enthusiasts-only alternate (Civil War fans, Classical Music enthusiasts, etc) ==> 1 to 20,000 broadcast/webcasts/downloads x $0.25 / month in year 1.

Literature:

Pop-culture/ Famous writers alternate (Shakespeare, etc)====> 1 to 100,000 books sold x $0.50 royalty/month


etc

So if 10,000 radio/internet stations broadcast your copyright-protected "Jefferson Starship" by Def Leppard this month, you will $2,500.


I guess players will have to figure where to get the $25,000 application fee for their discovery....

[Digren Kaellise]

Originally Posted by Byteknight

Merchant PCs are selling commodities acquired from alternate Earths to
Earth Prime (or Homeline) that MUST be declining in price every day.
We're told that White Star and other companies are acquiring comodities
(presumably things like gold, timber, diamonds, wheat, etc) from empty
Earths and bringing them back to Homeline. All of this is bound to drop
the price of these commodities back in homeline, possibly cause
deflation, but definately improving the standard of living of everyone
"back home."

The same thing happens now on our planet in some markets. The costs of electronics continually falls over time, for example. A computer bought for $3000 in 1984 would resell for $400 at most in 1988, perhaps $100 in 1990, and be no more than $25 in 1995.

To counter this, electronics makers have to continually develop new and better things. Otherwise the market would saturate with the same old things and demand would die, because the products do not wear out fast enough to sustain a market without artificial "obsolescense".

The same is partially true in, say, the clothing industry. Many people buy clothes to wear until they wear out. Others, though, buy clothes and wear them until they are "obsolete" - in other words, out of style.

So, to play merchants in an Infinite Earth campaign, you need to be searching for the next big thing. Find an Earth where the super rock band the Mompets outsold the Beatles 10-to-1, and introduce the band to Homeline. By the next year they will be normal and boring, but you have just found an incredible fashion designer on a different Earth and are working to roll out a new line.

The people of Homeline are living better and better lives because of all the basic elements that are being brought in from other worlds. As a PC merchant, it is your job to find things for those people to spend their new free time and money on.

[Gaming_Bird]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

I do recommend the Robert Asprin series, very good books, and they do touch on cross dimensional trading.
Just to note, I believe there are 12 books in The Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve.

__________________

As for what gets sold where and when, companies will hold overstock, whether it be diamonds like DeBeers, or gold like some other companies, and only release enough to profit without glutting the economy.

When prices go up they sell more product, when prices drop, product gets held. With a booming economy like Homeworld's more and more people will be buying more products, and influx from other worlds will keep the product affordable.

Besides overstock can always be sold off-world at a profit, they is having factors out there looking for the deals.

When I was talking about 'Myth Adventures,' I was talking about the graphic novel (aka 'comic book') which due to the visual media (and Phil Foglio's wonderful comedic style) provides a more succinct explanation of cross-world trading. I have the whole 'Myth' and 'M.Y.T.H. Inc' series, up to the point where Skeve ans Aahz retire from M.Y.T.H. Inc to train the kid in a more traditional manner.

Anyone who's familiar with Foglio's style (and since he's illustrated a few SJG products, he should be familiar to some people here) knows that it's worth looking at his artwork for the extra chuckle he puts in.

[Pesterfield]

Considering money and payment with all the precious metals coming into Homeline might they return to backing money with them? After all gold is gold no matter what form it's in.

Land might also be a good payment to Homeline workers. Work on an Arabian oil field on an empty earth, and not only get paid but the land of your choice either free or at a discount. It probable won't help you directly, but owning an alternate Hawaii could set a family for generations if they use it intelligently.

[vitruvian]

I suppose one economic model that might work is to become a "copyright hound" to help defray the cost of a conveyor.

You scout out a world, pick up that copy of When Harry Met Sally, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and submit an application to some Homeline govt. body for copyright protection.

Except what would be the basis of awarding you copyright? Simply first come, first serve? Under current copyright law, intellectual property rights only accrue to the creator(s) or those for whom they are working or to whom they assign the rights. Assuming that Homeline is not going to blow the Secret in order to set up royalty arrangements with the creators on other lines (e.g., Hitchcock or his estate), I can see two likely outcomes in terms of copyright protection:

1) Work from another timeline (that differs significantly from works produced in this one) is ipso facto public domain. Anyone can copy, distribute, publish and profit from it, meaning that anyone who wishes to do so must distinguish their product based on price, production value, etc., rather than sole ownership. People still publish new editions of public domain product, so this may be fine.

2) More likely, Infinity or the UN claims rights to all intellectual property from other lines, possibly with an accompanying claim/obligation to funnel royalties back to the worlds from which it is sourced for the outtimers' benefit. Publishers would license the rights from Infinity rather than hold them directly.

The problem with the copyright application as such comes when the office rejects it - since it's not coming from the author or somebody who paid the author for the work.

[bazzalisk]

The book actualy tells us what goes on in these circumstances. Copyright is granted to the closest homeline relative of the origional creator. However I would imagine there would be a serious trade in items from other worlds which would be out of copyright by this point on homeline. Not so much for the IP, but for the origionals (especialy with things like paintings).

[jkelly]

I wouldn't say "impossible". GURPS books in general haven't provided a lot of support for merchant, or economically-driven, campaigning. A GM needs to do an awful lot of work filling in the blanks. Doing that work in the IW setting would be... time-consuming.

[Byteknight]

Originally Posted by Pesterfield

Considering money and payment with all the precious metals coming into Homeline might they return to backing money with them? After all gold is gold no matter what form it's in.

Hmmm... not a bad idea, though it'll make the Keynesians cringe. If I remember my economics correctly, the British got off the gold standard in the 20s and the US got off totally in it the late 60s because printing dollars pegged to gold couldn't keep up to the demand for currency thanks to population growth.

We are assuming that the supply of gold is increasing on Homeline. If I print one dollar to = X amount of gold ounces (and vice versa), the value of a homeline dollar will go down as the value of that X amount of gold ounce is worth less and less thanks to increasing supply. A govt will then need to print more dollars, causing inflation. But since prices around the world are dropping b/c of the influx of commodities (causing deflation) the homeline govt will not need to print more money. They can set the amount of gold to offset inflation with deflation, though that will constantly need to be adjusted.

Or ... What if they put the value of 1 dollar to equal some ridiculous amount of gold that will be more than current growth in supply. 1 dollar = 100 tons of gold, for instance. That would cause the value of a dollar to decline less. Who wants to dig up and bring back 100 tons of gold to equal 1 dollar? It might work.....

How about some other rare metal found on Earth, like platinum or something? I dollar will = X amount of platinum (or some other metal). Something that will be hard to dig up on other worlds and transport to Homeline. A platinum standard.....

[Byteknight]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Except what would be the basis of awarding you copyright? Simply first come,


(1) Work from another timeline (that differs significantly from works produced in this one) is ipso facto public domain. .

I seem to remember that the Patrol owns all property on other worlds, so a copyright will not be public domain.

To encourage inter-dimensional trade, and align the interests of non-patrol travellers from homeline with the Patrol, they can grant a discoverer the right to some sort of legal protection for a certain # of years. At expiration, the Patrol acquires the intellectual property, to do with it what it wants. Funnel royalties back to the world, set up a trust to future beneficiaries of that Earth, etc.

[Pesterfield]

What if they put the value of 1 dollar to equal some ridiculous amount of gold that will be more than current growth in supply. 1 dollar = 100 tons of gold, for instance.

That sounds like a bad idea, what about the people who want to be paid in gold, silver, etc.? As you said the inflation/deflation will balance each other with some control. Or they could just skip the paper and mint currency in gold.