[lixtra]

I find the cc-nc license for the generated images surprising[1].

So let me restate that: you take a set of rules from a 30+ year old book, create a graphic from that and claim copyright on the graphic that was derived by those very rules from a random or manually entered seed? Why do you think you have more power over the output than the original author of the DMG?

[1] https://www.dungeonstome.com/faq.html

EDIT: spelling cc-nc

[danielvf]

I think you are correct that an image derived from a program with no human input is not copyrightable in the US. Relevant sections from the copyright.gov compendium, 3rd edition

--------------

# 306 The Human Authorship Requirement

The U.S. Copyright Office will register an original work of authorship, provided that the work was created by a human being. The copyright law only protects “the fruits of intellectual labor” that “are founded in the creative powers of the mind.” Trade-Mark Cases, 100 U.S. 82, 94 (1879). Because copyright law is limited to “original intellectual conceptions of the author,” the Office will refuse to register a claim if it determines that a human being did not create the work. Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, 111 U.S. 53, 58 (1884). For representative examples of works that do not satisfy this requirement, see Section 313.2 below.

...

# 313.2 Works That Lack Human Authorship

The Office will not register works produced by nature, animals, or plants. Likewise, the Office cannot register a work purportedly created by divine or supernatural beings....

...

Similarly, the Office will not register works produced by a machine or mere mechanical process that operates randomly or automatically without any creative input or intervention from a human author... Example: A claim based on a mechanical weaving process that randomly produces irregular shapes in the fabric...

https://www.copyright.gov/comp3/docs/compendium.pdf (Warning, approx 1200 pages)

[johnday]

That doesn't seem to imply that it cannot be copyrighted.

> Similarly, the Office will not register works produced by a machine or mere mechanical process that operates randomly or automatically without any creative input or intervention from a human author... Example: A claim based on a mechanical weaving process that randomly produces irregular shapes in the fabric...

There is clear direction in the program here; it does not operate randomly without any creative input or intervention from a human author.

[edem]

Modified version == derived work. Plus it is his own code. Fair game. End of story.