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I want to ask a question regarding who currently has the rights to publish a popular game line that's changed hands a few times. During my due-diligence searching of past questions, however, I came across this question:

Who holds the license for Cadillacs & Dinosaurs?

which was marked as off-topic.

Was that question was off-topic because it was asking who owned the rights to a licensed property that was not itself a tabletop RPG, or are all questions regarding ownership of IP off topic, even if I'm asking about publishing rights for an RPG?

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I'd have to say that asking who has the publication rights to a specific game should be on topic.

I'm pretty sure there are some other questions here that have come and gotten pretty good answers that are along a similar line.

I think that yes, it's probably quite different when the question is about a non-rpg license issue. For instance asking who has the current star wars license (if there is not an active game) is probably not on topic. But asking who has the publication license for D&D would be.

However, make sure that in your due diligence you take a peek at wikipedia or make a quick google search and make sure the answer isn't glaringly obvious.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Isn't such a question asking for an answer that could change in time and thus not suitable for the format? \$\endgroup\$
    – Zachiel
    Commented Aug 28, 2013 at 17:29
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    \$\begingroup\$ That's an interesting point. Would contextualizing the question to refer to a particular point in time fix that problem in your mind? I've seen plenty of questions on stack exchange where, because technology changes, the answer has to change. No question is ultimately immune to time. \$\endgroup\$
    – jwrush
    Commented Aug 28, 2013 at 17:35
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Zachiel just because information changes over time, does not mean it's a bad fit here. In fact our content curation ability here means we're better suited to answers that change over time. Though that's not always the case. \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Commented Aug 28, 2013 at 17:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Zachiel also, SE sites are based on a wiki-like license where everybody can modify and update questions and answers and if such answer changes too much, it becomes a CW with even less restrictions to modifications. \$\endgroup\$
    – Braiam
    Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 14:41
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As clearly stated in its comments, that previous question was closed because it was a crosspost from SF&F that was already answered there, not because it was off topic.

A question to who owns publishing rights to a given RPG is on topic here, though frequently not really answerable without lawyers involved.

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