[IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Doesn't one of the Time Travel, Alternate Earths, or Infinite Worlds books have a list of "alternate books by authors"?

Yep - it's on page 41 of GURPS Infinite Worlds.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

Enough Wealth, Contacts, and Favors can give you Legal Immunity. Unless the dominant species is Homo Moralus, but then they wouldn't be stealing other planets property and ideas without compensation either.

Not to say that somebody couldn't get away with such things for a while, but there is an absolutely huge difference in severity between piracy of intellectual property and human trafficking, not to mention that in the latter case there would be victims actually resident on Homeline.

[Tyneras]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Not to say that somebody couldn't get away with such things for a while, but there is an absolutely huge difference in severity between piracy of intellectual property and human trafficking, not to mention that in the latter case there would be victims actually resident on Homeline.

I tend to view Infinity through a very dark lens, villains who are slaves to good PR. The wealth of the "in crowd" is going to be exploding, the gulf between the haves and the have-nots will be bigger than ever, and the only ones put on trial will be those who failed to grease the right palms.

Infinite worlds, infinite wealth!
Infinite wealth, infinite corruption!

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

I tend to view Infinity through a very dark lens, villains who are slaves to good PR. The wealth of the "in crowd" is going to be exploding, the gulf between the haves and the have-nots will be bigger than ever, and the only ones put on trial will be those who failed to grease the right palms.

Infinite worlds, infinite wealth!
Infinite wealth, infinite corruption!

Well, that's an alternate to the official timeline, I would think. In the regular one, while they may not worry about the intellectual property rights of outtimers (who after all aren't in on the Secret and could never bring a lawsuit), a major purpose of Infinity (besides combatting Centrum) is to police the commercial exploitation of the other timelines so it's not too egregious. So, they're going to at least try to enforce restrictions on using slave labor even in timelines where slavery still exists, let alone turning a blind eye to kidnapping and human trafficking of outtimers to Homeline.

Which is not to say that one of the super-rich with a private or semiprivate world to take them to couldn't get away with this for at least a while, just that it wouldn't be in Infinity's best interest to ignore it once evidence came to light - not least because they are dependent on PR and there are plenty of media organizations with the funds to lease their own conveyors, too, so there's no guarantee of the trillionaire's shenanigans not getting reported and resulting in a major scandal.

[Darekun]

Originally Posted by Ed the Coastie

(Something about how it's REALLY difficult for an 8' tall humanoid with a schnoz the size of a normal human's head to be inconspicuous much of anywhere...)

While the Infinity Unlimited setting is descended from althist, and therefore uses a fairly limited canvas, I've usually played it more broadly, and have toyed with an "Infinity, Repopulated" that's based on multiple lines with different races replacing Homeline. When a normal party includes people from Microworld, a high-biotech line, and a "cousin" of USL, a Titanthrope would fit in well enough, though lines they could serve as a face in would be rare :J

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

While Homeline doesn't worry about compensation to anybody in other timelines, Infinity or whoever is planning to distribute these things may run into major trouble from the artists, estates, or companies controlling the rights to anything that hasn't gone into public domain on Homeline itself. Lost Dickens is going to be fine, but the character and stories of Northwest Smith are likely to still be in copyright, and couldn't be distributed even in another medium unless license terms were arranged. Or consider the case of adult (as in erotica) Disney films from another timeline with different moral standards resulting a lawsuit from the Mouse of Homeline for trademark dilution and harming numerous marks in value.

I don't know who owns the rights to C.L.Moore's works, or to the images of Humphrey Bogart and Kathrine Hepburn, but if a good solid film showed up from an alternate timeline, with Bogart and Hepburn doing top of the line work, people would make deals. Similarly, if a world (let's call it Norma Baker) were Marilyn Monroe's drug habit was less quickly destructive to her, and she made a half-dozen or so more films, and good ones, there would be presure to cut a deal. In fact in both of these cases, serious critics could be called on to push for the realese of these films as art treasures.

Similarly, picture timelines where major social problems were less brutal or solved earlier. A world (it would be a strange parallel) were history worked out to be about the same, except that Homophobia and legal restrictions against homosexuality fade into obscruity before 1890, would have a far larger and richer variety of images of Gay and Bisexual people in its films and TV. The LGBT community would want to have large numbers of those films for a wide variety of reasons. In spite of the objections to the heirs of stars, who in this world would never have played a gay character, led alone a gay romantic lead, many of these films would get out.

Both commerce and art would push this sort of thing.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

I don't know who owns the rights to C.L.Moore's works, or to the images of Humphrey Bogart and Kathrine Hepburn, but if a good solid film showed up from an alternate timeline, with Bogart and Hepburn doing top of the line work, people would make deals. Similarly, if a world (let's call it Norma Baker) were Marilyn Monroe's drug habit was less quickly destructive to her, and she made a half-dosen or so more films, and good ones, there would be presure to cut a deal. In fact in both of these cases, serious critics could be called on to push for the realese of these films as art treasures.

Similarly, picture timelines where major social problems were less brutal or solved earlier. A world (it would be a strange paralell) were history worked out to be about the same, except that Homophobia and legal restrictions against homosexuality fade into obscruity before 1890, would have a far larger and richer variety of image of Gay and Bisexual people in its films and TV. The LGBT community would want to have large numbers of those films for a wide variety of reasons. In spite of the objections to the heirs of stars, who in this world would never have played a gay character, led alone a gay romantic lead, many of these films would get out.

Both commerce and art would push this sort of thing.

Sure, but deals would still have to be made, rights owners on Homeline would have to get paid (meaning that it's not all distribution and profit once you get back home), and there would be some things (like gay or porn Mickey Mouse) that the rights holders would just refuse to bend on.

[Captain-Captain]

Fossil 1

A unique world in local 1928. Archaeologists uncovered a skeleton with organic remains. Silicon based organic remains. Some time after the turn of the century this Earth got visited.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

Enough Wealth, Contacts, and Favors can give you Legal Immunity. Unless the dominant species is Homo Moralus, but then they wouldn't be stealing other planets property and ideas without compensation either.

Part of the setting is that Infinity share a deep, dark secret with The Powers That Be on Homeline that makes it in their interest to back up Infinity on Homeline and, outside of a certain amount of espionage to which Infinity turns a blind eye and a deaf ear, to allow the I-Cops to run the show off-Homeline. You can't grease enough palms or do enough favors to get Infinity to look the other way while your criminal enterprise threatens the structure of reality and everyone else's ill gotten gains as well.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Sure, but deals would still have to be made, rights owners on Homeline would have to get paid (meaning that it's not all distribution and profit once you get back home), and there would be some things (like gay or porn Mickey Mouse) that the rights holders would just refuse to bend on.

Porn and Mickey Mouse yes. As to the Gay thing, if you'd had a Hollywood were Racism had never been an issue, no one would object to distributing a film with a romance between Paul Robison and Marlene Detrich, or a love story staring Gene Kelly and Lenna Horne, or Marilyn Monroe and Harry Belafonte. By the 2030's on Homeline, I seriously doubt even the heir of the Wayne estate would object to a top of the line John Ford Western with John Wayne and Gary Cooper as a loving couple.