A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
A player, 27 February 2012
References to a source card's own title in the source ability become references, in the copied ability, to the title of the copied ability's own card.
Lets say one of the spawned goju created ninja cards from goju sawaki and they use sly deciever targeting Hiruma Nitani
Battle: Bow Nitani unless you have Reconnaissance: Ranged 4 Attack, with +2 strength if the target is Shadowlands.
The tokens don't have titles, so therefore couldn't be referenced by title as in the case of the ability they copied? (if this were logical computer code, I would expect a null pointer reference, which is why I ask)
So in this case would you not be able to pay the costs of bowing itself by name? Or not copy the ability at all because it fails to replace the previous card's title with its own? Or function normally pretending it has a title or pronoun like 'this card' to fill that spot.
Alex Jones (rules official), 27 February 2012
Lets say one of the spawned goju created ninja cards from goju sawaki and they use sly deciever targeting Hiruma Nitani
The tokens don't have titles, so therefore couldn't be referenced by title as in the case of the ability they copied? (if this were logical computer code, I would expect a null pointer reference, which is why I ask)
So in this case would you not be able to pay the costs of bowing itself by name? Or not copy the ability at all because it fails to replace the previous card's title with its own? Or function normally pretending it has a title or pronoun like 'this card' to fill that spot.
Under discussion.
Alex Jones (rules official), 8 March 2012
The rules for copied abilities which refer to their card by title have been changed slightly from what you quoted above: References to the source card by title in the source ability become references, in the copied ability, to the copied ability's own card. Example: If Bayushi Ni copies the ability "Bow San: Ranged 4 Attack" from Yoritomo San, the ability on him is "Bow this card: Ranged 4 Attack."
Alex