The problem is acknowledging or accepting how the industry's products and the industry itself(its relations with its public) are working.
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Another Cease and Desist Letter: 4E Powercards
- Thread starter Admiral Caine
- Start date
Fifth Element
Legend
They might be, if they do not fall under fair use.
Do you have any case law to back that up? There is nothing in the copyright laws I'm familiar with that allows for this. Maybe the US has some strangeness in its laws that I'm not aware of? It would be very interesting to know about.
Uh... no. You can't. Your copyrighten stuff remains as such until you explicitly state it to be in the public domain, or something like $massive_number of years after your death.
What you can risk though, is the amount of damages you can receive. If you knowingly let someone continue infringing on your copyrights, you limit the amount of statutory damages you can recover from them (ie, you can't let them "run up the tab" before going after them).
GMforPowergamers
Legend
who here thinks if I start my own fan site to D&D and I scan the players handbook pages with class info on them, and provide them for free that I am OK to do so???
Is there anyone here that hinks I am NOT breaking the law???
Is there anyone here that hinks I am NOT breaking the law???
Imaro
Legend
Was anything on either of the sites that were sent C&D letters scanned from the books... if so I wasn't aware of this. Or is your comparison refering to something else?
GMforPowergamers
Legend
I belive (I only delt with the first site not this new one that to be honnest I never herd of before this) they did copy and paste not scan... is there a diffrence in your mind? is the act of retyping (if it wasn't really c and p) enough in your mind to change it??
Xyxox
Hero
Imaro
Legend
Honestly, I think it depends upon the company (even though alot of people are making it seem like it's "common sense" to know what you can or can't put on a fansite)... I have cited numerous examples where what could be considered "IP" is used by fans to create game aids for the players of said games... now if someone gave enough away in one of these aids to actually play the game without the books then yeah, I would feel that's wrong... For example here's another site where someone has done exactly what you're asking (and more) for Castles & Crusades... it's a cheat sheet for character creation that has class abilities at first level, racial information, equipment, etc. to create a character. It's linked to on the TL forums and is openly talked about by the fanbase there...
http://www.grey-elf.com/candc/
Under Character Creation Cheat Sheet... oh yeah, there's also a PDF CK Screen, even though Troll Lords produces a for sale screen as well.
El Mahdi
Muad'Dib of the Anauroch
DISCLAIMER: I'm not a lawyer either.
I'm not 100% sure on this, but I am pretty sure.
WoTC can put "For Personal Use Only" on their character sheets all they want, and it doesn't necessarily mean they have any legal grounds to restrict it's use. The only thing they can restrict on them is logos and Trademark material. The rest of the sheet is simply a form. If you removed all Trademark material (Logos, the D&D name, etc.), you can copy the rest of the sheet as is, and post it, print it, and yes - even sell it, and WoTC has no legal grounds to stop you. Now, that doesn't mean that they wouldn't try to stop you. And if one doesn't have the money to fight a legal battle, they win anyways. But the fact remains that forms are not copyrightable and therefore are not protected.
If you put copyrightable material on it, such as spells/powers/feats/skills text, lists of spells/feats/powers, or dropdowns that do the same - then you've infringed copyright again. But, a blank form (character sheet) is not copyrightable. (Technically, posting a fully fleshed out character, with all of his feats/skills/powers,etc. - using copyrighted text/material, it's probably violating copyright. But if it's just a fan on a fansite, it's too small for WoTC to probably worry about.)
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