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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mxyzplk" data-source="post: 4678513" data-attributes="member: 16450">And it's fine to disagree.  I have to say though, since White Wolf came out with its guidelines saying "your characters are derivative IP and we own them" just a couple months ago, I don't have that same safe feeling WotC won't do the same.  Comes down to a basic trust issue.  IMO, a real life recent example of the #2 RPG company doing it means that speculating that the #1, who won't come out and say what its policy is, might do the same isn't really fearmongering, it's plain logic.The answer of course to "does a fansite have the spiritual right to reproduce IP..." is of course yes.  In fact, I'd replace "right" with "need."  Not wholesale copying, but as we have seen, the legal definition of "reproducing IP" is as simple as my current priest's character sheet including the power "short descriptions" from the PHB.  That's technically reproducing Wizards IP and it's technically actionable.  But it's also kinda expected.  And some amount of this, Wizards wants to happen.  It's part of building a community around your products.  But how much do they want to have happen, and where does it cross the line for them?This isn't some unique problem to this industry.  I work for a computer-type company with plenty of software IP.  Some people still adhere to a completely closed model there, but that's largely old giants that made their money long ago.  The newer guys, you have to figure out - what do I release as open source?  What do I make "industry standard interfaces", release to the IEEE as specs, etc. rather than trying to keep them proprietary?  How do I allow our base to write programs using our products, create add-ons for our products, etc?  And we know it's important for the community of our customers, resellers, consultants, etc. to know where that line is, as vagueness is chilling to the market.  People don't want to take a risk and get shut down after investing time and money.  Even WoW had to come to a clear agreement with modders as to what was OK and what wasn't.  WotC needs to do the same.</blockquote>

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