4th Ed D&D just like Old School D&D-- when it comes to Cease & Desist Letters

[Marius Delphus]

The typical C&D letter is written and sent by an attorney on behalf of a client. It states that the addressee is engaging in some kind of ongoing wrong against the attorney's client, insists that the addressee cease and desist from engaging in the ongoing wrong, and warns that if the wrong continues, the client may file suit.

Presumably the ongoing wrong pointed out in the letters being sent is copyright and/or trademark infringement. As explained above, this really does hold some water: in general, a "fan" that makes somebody else's intellectual property available for download and use without the permission of the IP owner is more or less asking for it.

 

[Yair]

The typical C&D letter is written and sent by an attorney on behalf of a client. It states that the addressee is engaging in some kind of ongoing wrong against the attorney's client, insists that the addressee cease and desist from engaging in the ongoing wrong, and warns that if the wrong continues, the client may file suit.

Presumably the ongoing wrong pointed out in the letters being sent is copyright and/or trademark infringement. As explained above, this really does hold some water: in general, a "fan" that makes somebody else's intellectual property available for download and use without the permission of the IP owner is more or less asking for it.

And that's WotC's first step? Disgusting.

I do extensive work as a fan of Atlas Games. In all my dealings with them, I have occasionally stepped beyond what they desired and they informed me of it. In all these dealings they were polite, and simply noted that what I'm doing will be bad for their business when it was. They knew I didn't want to harm them, and didn't feel any need to threaten me with legal action. I amended my ways as soon as I was told to do so. I'm not entirely certain all their requests could even have been backed up by law; it doesn't matter, since they asked I removed/changed what they wanted.

I'm disgusted that a company will use such brute force with its fans unless its absolutely necessary. Polite letters expressing the company's wishes and reasoning should handle 90% of cases. The law should only be dragged into it if the fans insist on breaking it against the company's interests and wishes, as a last and not first resort. Anything else reeks of disrespect for the fans and a miserly approach to their intellectual property. Or perhaps it is but a symptom of being a large, impersonal, company?

 

[Marius Delphus]

I have occasionally stepped beyond what they desired and they informed me of it.

That's all WOTC has done. It's just that WOTC has (it would seem) employed an attorney to do this.

But what triggered the C&D letters must be noted: to all appearances, the C&D letters showed up where "fans" were giving away most of the 4E Player's Handbook for free over the Internet. The 3.5 SRD is free to copy and redistribute; the 4E PHB is not. This is an important distinction that "fans" need to understand and live with. There also appears to have been a trademark issue over the use of the official logo in third-party tools, IIRC.

The law should only be dragged into it if the fans insist on breaking it against the company's interests and wishes, as a last and not first resort. Anything else reeks of disrespect for the fans and a miserly approach to their intellectual property. Or perhaps it is but a symptom of being a large, impersonal, company?

So far, it would seem "the law" has not been "dragged" into anything. All that seems to have happened is that a couple of "fans" have been put on notice that copying and redistributing most of the 4E Player's Handbook without permission (whether through a character-building tool or by some other means) is not legal, nor is stamping the D&D logo on stuff that WOTC didn't make in a way that WOTC hasn't expressly allowed.

It would be important to WOTC to employ an attorney for at least three reasons. One, if 4E PHB content is given away for free, this affects sales of the 4E PHB itself: possibly the #1 selling role-playing book of all, and an "evergreen" product for WOTC -- one they expect to sell throughout the life cycle of Fourth Edition. Two, if a character-building tool with full PHB functionality is given away for free, this affects sales of the DDI, with its character builder application. Three, registered trademarks in the U.S. must be actively defended to maintain their "strength."

As players, we might prefer a free solution, but as the owner of the intellectual property and the steward of the D&D brand, WOTC has the right to dictate how, when, and where it's used. I don't find it disgusting when they employ attorneys to remind "fans" that cross the line of their rights; I don't feel a lack of respect from WOTC; most of all, I disagree that a C&D letter represents anything like "brute force" in the cases I know of.

 

[Yair]

It would be important to WOTC to employ an attorney for at least three reasons. One, if 4E PHB content is given away for free, this affects sales of the 4E PHB itself: possibly the #1 selling role-playing book of all, and an "evergreen" product for WOTC -- one they expect to sell throughout the life cycle of Fourth Edition. Two, if a character-building tool with full PHB functionality is given away for free, this affects sales of the DDI, with its character builder application. Three, registered trademarks in the U.S. must be actively defended to maintain their "strength."

How would those goals not be achieved by a more polite request to desist, one respecting the fan as a person trying to further the game and not to harm it?

The letter treats the person as a criminal or, worse, a machine. It doesn't appeal to his intelligence and good nature, try to establish a rapport or mutually-benefitial cooperation. Instead it refers to formulaic rules and proper legal procedures, and the appeal is mainly to fear of being sued in court. A company should respect and work with its fans, even when they break the law - it should only sue them as a last resort, and only threaten to sue as a next-to-last resort.

WotC doesn't respect its fans. It doesn't even have a fan site policy! Still! I'm glad I'm no longer its client.

 

[Marius Delphus]

Let me be clear one last time, as I'm not interested in being bombarded by your low opinion of the legal process and of WOTC any longer.

TTBOMK, we're not talking about people who accidentally crossed the line and posted something they shouldn't have in a blog or in their fan wiki. We're talking about people who purposely assmbled material that contained huge, meaningful portions of the 4E PHB and who knew, or should have known, (1) that distributing copies of books without permission is illegal, (2) that they hadn't been given permission to distribute that material, and (3) that when they uploaded their work, tens of thousands of people would likely download it.

They've been reminded that this is the case. Now, this sort of thing is almost always handled by a lawyer with a simple letter. No legal action has been taken. I'm not aware, and don't believe, we are privy to the actual content of the letters -- they may be written very respectfully and almost apologetically, for all I know.

Would these have been cool and valuable tools for D&D players? I believe they would have. Did the makers put a lot of work into these tools? I don't doubt that one bit. But I don't agree that WOTC needs to coddle their fanbase in the realm of what's copyrighted and closed and what isn't -- until they open the 4E PHB in the way that they did the 3.0 and 3.5 PHBs (all signs point to "Ain't Happening"), the act of including large swaths of the 4E PHB in a downloadable "fan project" of any kind is going to be illegal. And I certainly don't agree that WOTC deserves to be castigated or painted as domineering and evil for taking measures to halt unauthorized distribution of their copyrighted property.

YMM(and clearly does)V. HAND.

 

[RedBeardJim]

And with regards to Ema's site, the entire site is down because his ISP took it down. WOTC didn't ask them to do that by all accounts (including Ema's), they just did it.

 

[Yair]

And I certainly don't agree that WOTC deserves to be castigated or painted as domineering and evil for taking measures to halt unauthorized distribution of their copyrighted property.

I'm not castigating WotC for taking measures to protect their copyrighted property, I'm castigating it for taking disproportional and crude methods where more civil and considerate methods are preferable. But yeah, we've hashed this more than enough.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Let me be clear one last time, as I'm not interested in being bombarded by your low opinion of the legal process and of WOTC any longer.

TTBOMK, we're not talking about people who accidentally crossed the line and posted something they shouldn't have in a blog or in their fan wiki. We're talking about people who purposely assmbled material that contained huge, meaningful portions of the 4E PHB and who knew, or should have known, (1) that distributing copies of books without permission is illegal, (2) that they hadn't been given permission to distribute that material, and (3) that when they uploaded their work, tens of thousands of people would likely download it.

They've been reminded that this is the case. Now, this sort of thing is almost always handled by a lawyer with a simple letter. No legal action has been taken. I'm not aware, and don't believe, we are privy to the actual content of the letters -- they may be written very respectfully and almost apologetically, for all I know.

Would these have been cool and valuable tools for D&D players? I believe they would have. Did the makers put a lot of work into these tools? I don't doubt that one bit. But I don't agree that WOTC needs to coddle their fanbase in the realm of what's copyrighted and closed and what isn't -- until they open the 4E PHB in the way that they did the 3.0 and 3.5 PHBs (all signs point to "Ain't Happening"), the act of including large swaths of the 4E PHB in a downloadable "fan project" of any kind is going to be illegal. And I certainly don't agree that WOTC deserves to be castigated or painted as domineering and evil for taking measures to halt unauthorized distribution of their copyrighted property.

YMM(and clearly does)V. HAND.

I'm sure then that you equally supported TSR's policy. TSR was completely within their rights to not want any of their material reproduced. This is not about the wisdom of not allowing it, but the legality. TSR made it perfectly clear that ANY reproduction of their work would not be tolerated so anyone who put anything up knew they were vilolating TSR's rights.

WotC previously had a policy of allowing huge amounts of their work to be legally reproduced. Wotc has changed that policy, but they have left some gray areas and they have not officially spelled out what their fan site policy is. Whether you support it or not TSR for all its problems had a much clearer policy than WotC does now.

 

[Marius Delphus]

I'm sure then that you equally supported TSR's policy.

You appear to be reading too much into what I said. I said I think WOTC is neither in the wrong nor doing something evil when they send C&D letters regarding the unauthorized distribution of copies of large portions of the 4E PHB to the people doing the distributing.

I have made and choose to make no statement regarding what I personally think of TSR's past policies.