Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Unconverted White Dwarf creatures
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Garnfellow" data-source="post: 3631441" data-attributes="member: 1223"><p>Games Workshop is listed as the copyright holder for most (all?) of the issues I have, but I think the legal disposition is a bit more complicated than that and possibly a serious muddle. </p><p></p><p>WD started as a fanzine, was for a time associated with TSR in a special relationship, and then published as an unaffiliated magazine.</p><p></p><p>During the entire period in which WD published D&D material (nearly its first 100 issues) it made extremely liberal use of TSR's intellectual property, and I assume most of the time this material was published under the principle of "fair use." (This was all long before the nasty lawsuits of the 80s which really made publishers afraid to test the limits of fair use, and before we had clear distinctions between open and closed content.) Maybe during the time WD and GW had a special relationship with TSR they had special legal permission to use TSR's IP, but I suspect it was probably just a handshake agreement.</p><p></p><p>So while GW might ostensibly have copyright over the D&D material published in its pages, because so much of that material uses TSR's intellectual property, I'm not sure that in the current climate GW would consider that it controls this material free and clear.</p><p></p><p>In addition to this, I'm not sure the early contracts between authors and GW were clear on copyright and control of intellectual property, just as there was some confusion over early Dragon content. Somewhere there's an article on the original Fiend Folio, which was published something like a year late. The article I'm thinking of blamed the delay on the extensive legal wrangling over rights to monsters that had been published in WD. I've only been able to track down one WD author, and he seemed to think he still had some rights over his creation.</p><p></p><p>So, where does this leave us? I think WD monsters that subsequently appeared in the Fiend Folio are the intellectual property of WotC. (Unless they were "opened" in the Tome of Horrors, of course). I think all other D&D monsters are probably copyrighted by GW, but because of their reliance on WotC's (and other people's) IP, GW is probably unable or at least unlikely to do anything with this material. It's sort of like "abandonware": cool material that stuck in legal limbo.</p><p> </p><p>I think if someone tried to adhere to fair use principles for a non-commercial project, cites sources, and doesn't just copy stuff willy-nilly, they should be fine. I certainly haven't heard anything about the conversions I've done.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Garnfellow, post: 3631441, member: 1223"] Games Workshop is listed as the copyright holder for most (all?) of the issues I have, but I think the legal disposition is a bit more complicated than that and possibly a serious muddle. WD started as a fanzine, was for a time associated with TSR in a special relationship, and then published as an unaffiliated magazine. During the entire period in which WD published D&D material (nearly its first 100 issues) it made extremely liberal use of TSR's intellectual property, and I assume most of the time this material was published under the principle of "fair use." (This was all long before the nasty lawsuits of the 80s which really made publishers afraid to test the limits of fair use, and before we had clear distinctions between open and closed content.) Maybe during the time WD and GW had a special relationship with TSR they had special legal permission to use TSR's IP, but I suspect it was probably just a handshake agreement. So while GW might ostensibly have copyright over the D&D material published in its pages, because so much of that material uses TSR's intellectual property, I'm not sure that in the current climate GW would consider that it controls this material free and clear. In addition to this, I'm not sure the early contracts between authors and GW were clear on copyright and control of intellectual property, just as there was some confusion over early Dragon content. Somewhere there's an article on the original Fiend Folio, which was published something like a year late. The article I'm thinking of blamed the delay on the extensive legal wrangling over rights to monsters that had been published in WD. I've only been able to track down one WD author, and he seemed to think he still had some rights over his creation. So, where does this leave us? I think WD monsters that subsequently appeared in the Fiend Folio are the intellectual property of WotC. (Unless they were "opened" in the Tome of Horrors, of course). I think all other D&D monsters are probably copyrighted by GW, but because of their reliance on WotC's (and other people's) IP, GW is probably unable or at least unlikely to do anything with this material. It's sort of like "abandonware": cool material that stuck in legal limbo. I think if someone tried to adhere to fair use principles for a non-commercial project, cites sources, and doesn't just copy stuff willy-nilly, they should be fine. I certainly haven't heard anything about the conversions I've done. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Unconverted White Dwarf creatures
Top