KotS Pregen Copyright.

[frankthedm]

I just got off the phone with WotC customer service (the supervisor and then the manager). IT IS ILLEGAL TO PHOTOCOPY OR SCAN THE KotS PREGEN CHARACTER SHEETS!

Of course wotc has to say that offically. If they don't, that opens a floodgate of Copyriech issues. They ain't gonna raid your house, they ain't going to read you the Rico act for your game down at your FLGS, they are just stating their official policy on such matters as required by this litigious society.

 

[Family]

I shot Scott an email about this. I'll see about getting an official response.

Thank-you.

 

[Oldtimer]

the internet is a bad place to get legal advice

To be fair to the OP, he wasn't asking for legal advice. Merely informing us about WotC's official stand on this.

 

[Oldtimer]

Of course wotc has to say that offically. If they don't, that opens a floodgate of Copyriech issues. They ain't gonna raid your house, they ain't going to read you the Rico act for your game down at your FLGS, they are just stating their official policy on such matters as required by this litigious society.

And thereby losing any credibility in the gaming community. That's a good way of starting a flood of real copyright infringements.

 

[pedr]

Of course what makes this most odd is that making a hand-written copy of a copyrighted work and making an electronic copy are equally infringing, or equally permissible. It is no more legal to get a copy of the PH and write out all the rules into a notebook than it is to take that copy to a photocopier or scanner and reproduce the work that way.

I suppose that WotC could give permission to make copies and make that permission conditional on the mechanism used to do the copying but it's strange.

I'm not going to comment on whether copyright exists in a character sheet, nor whether copying that sheet electronically or photographically infringes in any particular jurisdiction.

 

[Noinarap]

I shot Scott

Oh my God!

an email about this. I'll see about getting an official response.

Whew! False alarm.








Sorry

 

[Family]

OK, wait. Do you mean 'you bought a copy, and you wanted to photocopy the character sheets for when you ran the module', or 'you wanted to photocopy character sheets of a copy that happened to be in the store, and use them for something else'?

I have purchased KotS at my local FLGS and I want to run the adventure using photocopies of the pregens leaving the originals intact in case of damage/overuse and so that I as DM have a copy of their character sheets in front of me.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I have purchased KotS at my local FLGS and I want to run the adventure using photocopies of the pregens leaving the originals intact in case of damage/overuse and so that I as DM have a copy of their character sheets in front of me.

Here's the chaotic in me coming out ... ever hear "better to ask forgiveness than permission"? It applies in this case. Copy away, play your game, and if it makes you feel better collect & destroy the copies afterward. Sheesh.

And if WotC sends copyright stormtroopers to your house to disrupt your game and cart you away in handcuffs, tell 'em a nut on the internet told you it was OK.

 

[AZRogue]

I think Mearls and the Rouse will get this all clarified shortly. It's ridiculous to expect you to not make copies for your gaming group.

As a matter of fact, I've made extra copies after reading this thread just to do it while it was still illegal. Such petty nitpicking only deserves one response: open ridicule. I'm sure the designers never intended whatever shortsighted interpretation that their customer service dept. is taking.

 

[Family]

I work at a church where photocopying the Sunday School materials is a big thing, the integrity would gnaw at me in this case; there is no will save high enough vs those pre-schooler's eyes (not that I'm not flagrently immoral in other areas).

Besides you guys had a 40 page thread on the morality of alignment, a little kick back is fair play eh?

Also if it wasn't important, shouldn't that just be formalized? A little less non-common-sense bureaucracy wouldn't be a bad thing.