Story hour publishing and copyright issues

Dr Midnight

Explorer

• Oct 13, 2013

• #1

Hi everyone, I was a person here about ten years ago and I've got a question about story hours and copyright. I've recently grown interested in publishing my old KNIGHTS OF THE SILVER QUILL story as an e-book. I've been publishing other writings and thought this'd be a nice addition to the library. The story, from beginning to end, is about 250,000 words long and would likely split up into about five volumes or so.

Specifically, I'm curious about copyright stuff. In the entire story hour, from beginning to end, I work off of tons of published modules- RttToEE, Dragon modules, many others. I want to know if anyone else has published a story hour that draws from published, copyrighted material and what the limitations are, if Wizards cares at all, or if that's entirely a no-no.

Apologies if there's already a topic like this somewhere or if I'm breaking some established protocol by posting this here and not elsewhere.

 

Last edited: Oct 13, 2013

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Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Oct 13, 2013

• #2

We have a couple of IP lawyers on the board, so hopefully they'll chip in.

This is very much not legal advice: but it depends. You certainly can't use trademarks in your publication, or names, places, etc. And you certainly can't reproduce the text of copyrighted material. If it's all your own words, but 'inspired' by something else, you'll be on safer ground.

 

Dr Midnight

Explorer

• Oct 13, 2013

• #3

We're definitely talking about using specific names and places, and text of copyrighted material.

 

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Oct 13, 2013

• #4

That's a definite no, then. No real way around that!

 

Dr Midnight

Explorer

• Oct 13, 2013

• #5

I was hoping (and kinda still am) that there's some sort of loophole, like parody law is for other things, or that Wizards tends to give a pass to people publishing stories using established terms. I really hope I don't have to find / replace tons of copyrighted terms. ...Because I don't think I care to do that.

 

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Oct 13, 2013

• #6

Sorry, dude. There is a parody provision - but it's for parodies! There are other fair use provisions such as reviews and news reporting. I don't think from the sounds of it you'll be able to claim that. You're wanting to do exactly the thing these laws are designed to prevent.

WotC can't give passes; they're legally required to protect their trademarks lest they lose them.

 

Dr Midnight

Explorer

• Oct 14, 2013

• #7

Anyone else? Anything? I mean, we know there's some small wiggle room on words and names, otherwise D&D wouldn't exist at all, because, y'know... Tolkien.

 

Umbran

Mod Squad

Staff member

Supporter

• Oct 14, 2013

• #8

Not a lawyer. This is merely my understanding gained from listening to others:

On trademarked elements, no, there's no wiggle room. WotC has to defend trademarks, or else potentially lose the trademark.

On elements that are copyrighted - WotC can choose to pursue that, or not. They may choose to overlook it as fan art, but only if you don't charge for it. If you collect money, using WotC copyright terms, expect them to stop you.

 

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Oct 14, 2013

• #9

Dr Midnight said:

Anyone else? Anything? I mean, we know there's some small wiggle room on words and names, otherwise D&D wouldn't exist at all, because, y'know... Tolkien.

Click to expand...

D&D is inspired by Tolkein. But the only word it borrowed from him was "hobbit". And the Tolkein estate put a stop to that very quickly, which is why we now use "halfling". You'll note a complete lack of Smaug, Gandalf, Mordor or any other Middle Earth names or places in any D&D setting.

Sorry, man. What you want to do is the exact thing you can't do. You need to change the names, places, and copyrighted text to your own.

 

J

Janx

Hero

• Oct 14, 2013

• #10

Dr Midnight said:

Anyone else? Anything? I mean, we know there's some small wiggle room on words and names, otherwise D&D wouldn't exist at all, because, y'know... Tolkien.

Click to expand...

When it comes to legal stuff, I find that the person who asks if it is legal and argues for "being able to do the thing they wanted" is almost always wrong.

It's like wishful thinking collides with better judgement.

You know there's legal complications, that's why you asked. Therefore, you should not be surprised to find the answer is "No, you can't/shouldn't do that."

Hoping to skate by on some legal technicality usually fails. Worse, by walking on the edge of something you know another party might object to, you invite lawsuit. Which means, whether you are right or wrong, you may not be able to afford it.

Therefore, best advice is to avoid legally dubious pursuits or investments.