KotS Pregen Copyright.

[AZRogue]

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.

Hey, I went to Sunday School and still go to church. Breaking the law isn't immoral. It's only against the law.

 

[smathis]

Here's hoping the Rouse can get this figured out.

It is really lame that we're in a position to have to rip up, tear up or otherwise mutilate a book we just paid $30 for.

Considering that there are no character sheets available for us to copy this information to.

And considering there's no way for us to get a printable version of these files (legally).

It's kind of tight spot we're in.

Fortunately, I've already located and printed out a PDF version of the characters that someone (not naming names) was kind enough to put together. So my weekend KotS demo is still on.

I can't see WotC not making some sales after the demo is completed.

So the long view would be to upload an official PDF of the pregens or at least a character sheet we could fill out.

There isn't that much rules information in the pregens that they would lose a sale just because someone downloaded them. The pregens are teasers for the most part and pretty much useless without at least the QuickStart rules -- which themselves are teasers as well.

At this point, KotS is as much a marketing tool for 4e as an actual product.

I think it would be wise to treat it as such.

Especially considering that people are, in effect, partially bankrolling this marketing blitz.

 

[Fifth Element]

If they don't, that opens a floodgate of Copyriech issues.

This illustrates Cadfan's point nicely.

 

[parasyte]

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.

Technically if you were to copy just the rules, and remove references to WOTC trademarks, that would be a perfectly legal thing to do as rules may never be under copyright, which is probably why hand-copying the abilities and such was mentioned by WOTC over the phone; if you were to do that you wouldn't be copying their (copyright-laden) layout of the data, just the data itself (some of which is likely to be trademarked, of course, but none of which may be copyrighted. Except the flavor text, which is unlikely to be copied by hand anyway.)

 

[Fifth Element]

that would be a perfectly legal thing to do as rules may never be under copyright

This also illustrates the point about taking what you read about copyright on the internet with as much salt as possible.

Copyright law is not so cut and dried that simple declarative sentences like this can handle it.

 

[malraux]

Technically if you were to copy just the rules, and remove references to WOTC trademarks, that would be a perfectly legal thing to do as rules may never be under copyright, which is probably why hand-copying the abilities and such was mentioned by WOTC over the phone; if you were to do that you wouldn't be copying their (copyright-laden) layout of the data, just the data itself (some of which is likely to be trademarked, of course, but none of which may be copyrighted. Except the flavor text, which is unlikely to be copied by hand anyway.)

Rules are not copyrightable, but particular wordings can be.

edit: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html

This is one of the big reasons why the OGL was a really good thing. It let us know what we could copy and distribute online without worrying about copyright. Getting the GSL out to everyone would help to clear up stuff like this.

 

[smathis]

Technically if you were to copy just the rules, and remove references to WOTC trademarks, that would be a perfectly legal thing to do as rules may never be under copyright, which is probably why hand-copying the abilities and such was mentioned by WOTC over the phone...

That would be more appealing if we had some sort of official character sheet available.

I know they have to have one lying around there somewhere.

And the one with the Autobot/Decepticon alignments doesn't seem to work with all the rules changes they've done since April 1st.

 

[Clavis]

What kind of f***ed up, decadent society do we live in that we apparently need to consult copyright lawyers before pretending to be elves?

 

[Boarstorm]

What kind of f***ed up, decadent society do we live in that we apparently need to consult copyright lawyers before pretending to be elves?

It beats "You keep what you kill."

 

[Enoch]

Yeah the only difference I can see with hand copying and a photocopier is the artwork. I don't see why one is ok and the other isn't.

-Joshua