Any plans for a Dragon CD Archive update?

[WayneLigon]

Any news, any ideas? That has to be hands-down one of the most useful research tools I had. Any plans to do updates for it (at, maybe, 50- or 100-issue intervals)?

How about a Dungeon CD Archive?

 

[trancejeremy]

I think the Dragon magazine archive was a disaster for WOTC, and while a Dungeon archive would probably be less problematic, it would also be not very profitable.

 

[DaveStebbins]

They have said in the past that the Dragon Archive CD did not sell well enough to consider doing updates. Coupled with the threats of lawsuits from authors who considered this a new usage of their work and wanted to be paid for that, it also soured them on the idea of a Dungeon Archive CD.

I believe they did eventually restructure their contracts to allow for electronic releases, so perhaps in the future...

 

[Ranger REG]

Who are the authors that threatened WotC?

 

[BOZ]

that's too bad, i'd buy it in a moment's notice!

 

[Ottergame]

Who are the authors that threatened WotC?

I am surprised that with TSR the freelancers who wrote for Dragon didn't have to sign over their first born son, much less were able to sue saying that the digital collection was new work.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I am surprised that with TSR the freelancers who wrote for Dragon didn't have to sign over their first born son, much less were able to sue saying that the digital collection was new work.

Well consider that when the first issue of dragon hit the stands the word digital was more Sci-Fi fiction than a common household name…

You can’t plan for everything you know.

 

[MW Turnage]

Who are the authors that threatened WotC?

Quite a number of SF&F authors, and SFWA (Science Fiction Writers Association) as a whole. Several already had exclusive contracts signed with other publishers for electronic rights. One of those involved was an intellectual property lawyer with a specialty in author's rights. And then there was Knights of the Dinner Table....

My understanding is that, despite a lot of clamor from both sides, WotC settled things pretty quickly and amicably with most of the authors. I haven't seen a current WotC (or Paizo for that matter) contract/form, but I imagine it pretty explicitly deals with this now.

 

[frankthedm]

I asked a little bit back about this in the "ATTN Piazo: Dungeon mag and Dragon mag CD-roms & the Tasini v NY Times decision" thread. Some rumors [ enhanced by the veil of an NDA ] point to wotc letting the previous edtions of D&D becoming hush money to Kenzer Ko. in a settlment possibly linked to KoDT reprints.

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=77120

The Tasini case came up in one of my courses on library work [copyreich subjects]. I got to thinking this could be one of the reasons the archives of the magazine seem to be no-go. Dragon had a fair of in house work, but to my understanding of Dungeon , most adventures were done by “freelancers”.

So i got to wondering, did this have bearing on the plans of the CD roms or did the old contracts permit the electronic use of the works in dragon and dungeon?


Quote:
Originally Posted by http://www.nwu.org/tvt/tvthome.htm

Introduction to Tasini v NY Times
Tasini et al vs The New York Times et al is the landmark lawsuit brought by members of the National Writers Union against The New York Times Company, Newsday Inc., Time Inc., Lexis/Nexis, and University Microfilms Inc., charging copyright violation regarding the electronic reuse of work produced and sold on a freelance basis.
For decades, when freelance writers sold stories to American publications it was understood by all concerned that they were selling only First North American Serial rights which allowed the newspaper or magazine to publish the story in print one time. For freelance authors, retention of all other copy rights is crucial to their economic survival because a significant additional source of income comes from their ability to sell secondary rights such as syndication, translations, anthologies, and so forth, to other publications.
With the advent of electronic media including databases like Nexis, publishers such as Time/Warner and the Times/Mirror Company, the parent companies of Time and Newsday, have been selling freelance-authored material to electronic databases such as Nexis/Lexis without any additional payment or purchase of electronic rights from the original authors. They claim, without justification, that by purchasing First North American Serial rights they automatically gain electronic re- publication rights. Tasini et al vs The New York Times et al is going to establish that they are violating the copy rights of writers.
Copyright © 2000 by National Writers Union.

 

[BOZ]

i remember back in the TSR/AOL days when they started posting old Dragon articles on the site (this was before the CD came out of course). they said they weren't going to post some of the older ones because they didn't have all the rights to do so - guess they were wise at the time.