D&D 5E (2014) SRD5 - A Clone of Part of D&D 5E Basic

Lidgar · Jul 8, 2014

So ends an interesting foray into the bizarre.

Sonny · Jul 8, 2014

Lidgar said:
So ends an interesting foray into the bizarre.

I'm just glad it ended before any trouble could come of it.

Artificer: Your heart seems to be in the right place, and I'm sorry if the response isn't what you hoped, but thank you for listening to the people here and taking their advice to pull the site.

I've dealt with enough affiliates and partners on YouTube to know that people are often confused and misunderstand the various Open Source licenses for art, music, code, (and games) that proliferate the internet. I've seen too many people run afoul of copyright law even when they were sure they were abiding by the letter (if not the spirit) of the license. I hope you don't beat yourself up about it.

GravyFingerz · Jul 8, 2014

And once again the old adage of "you can't make friends with copyright infringement and IP theft" is proven to have more than just a grain of truth.

mach1.9pants · Jul 8, 2014

"old adage" hahaha Yeah first heard from Shakespeare IIRC

Sonny · Jul 8, 2014

Talath said:
And once again the old adage of "you can't make friends with copyright infringement and IP theft" is proven to have more than just a grain of truth.

You also don't make friends with salad.

Abstruse · Jul 8, 2014

If you keep trying to stick to your guns on that trademark, you're going to lose that one too. Remember, it's you vs. multi-billion dollar company with full-time legal team. There's no "underdog come from behind" here, just tens or hundreds of thousands in legal bills and you settling out of court anyway.

Lord Blackstone · Jul 8, 2014

Artificer said:
SRD5™ Has been taken offline for now.

Jim

Smart move. You will probably still get a C&D from Wizards aka Hasbro Legal. It is what I would do if I were them, honestly. They have to cover their bases. Good luck if you pursue the matter, but, IMO you will lose.

Morrus · Jul 8, 2014

Man, the poor guy must be petrified by now.

Just to ease his worries a little - the first stage is just the C&D. That's just a letter asking you to take it down, though it might be strongly worded. Generally speaking, if you comply it ends there. Even I've had one in the past from WotC legal (due to stuff folks had posted here), though I had a lot of contact with WotC back then and it was all very amicably dealt with.

Following that (if you don't comply) would then usually be a takedown notice. That gets it taken down for you.

Anyway, you've taken it down. Don't panic too much. If you do try this again (though John Reyst makes his living doing exactly that and has one in the works, shocking exactly nobody - and even he has made mistakes and had requests to remove stuff from the likes of Paizo) it's worth getting legal advice. Costs a bit upfront, but peace of mind is worth it.

Baumi · Jul 8, 2014

Artificer, why don't you simply just ask WOTC if you are allowed to create an free online SRD? That way you don't have to hassle with Laws and if you get the permission than you also get a lot more goodwill and recognition than just relying on laws.

Legal or not, if you publish someone elses work you should at least ask them for permission. Thats just the polite way to do things and you make sure that you don't upset anyone.

WOTC has had a good record in letting Fans create free work, so the chances are not bad that they let you publish their free content in another format (like Wiki/HTML) anyway.