Any plans for a Dragon CD Archive update?

[Ottergame]

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…

Well duh, but I figured TSR would have made sure to include a "we reserve all right to republish material without further compensation to the author" clause of their contracts.

 

[Alzrius]

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.

The rumor that I heard was that the settlement was that the new edition of Kingdoms of Kalamar got to use the Dungeons & Dragons logo.

It's quite possible that both rumors are true.

 

[DaveStebbins]

Well duh, but I figured TSR would have made sure to include a "we reserve all right to republish material without further compensation to the author" clause of their contracts.

I think most contracts at that time were first rights type contracts, especially for art. While this allows for reprints of entire issues, it does not allow for other uses like posting the article on the company's website by itself or compiled in a best-of anthology.

The problem was that TSR considered the Archive CD a reprint, since each magazine was reproduced complete, without changes; but many authors considered it a new and different publication, which TSR did not have the rights to do without compensating them.

 

[Ranger REG]

Well duh, but I figured TSR would have made sure to include a "we reserve all right to republish material without further compensation to the author" clause of their contracts.

Just another example of TSR's mismanagement.

As for the SF&F writers ... well, I can only speak for myself, but I could do without the short fiction stories if that is a problem. All I wanted was the gaming articles. But I guess when you have to call it a magazine archive, you are to preserve them in their entireties.

 

[Staffan]

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.

From what I recall, it was more a matter of not having the contracts available to check if they did have the rights. Apparently, the contracts were stored on a disk with a way old format, which wasn't readable by their current machines. When, after a few years, someone offered to help them read the contracts, Sean looked into things and it turned out that the disk was gone altogether (might have been lost when moving to Washington or something).

Well duh, but I figured TSR would have made sure to include a "we reserve all right to republish material without further compensation to the author" clause of their contracts.

AFAIK, the default contract a few years back stated that. However, some people - especially fiction writers - have the clout to be able to get different contracts. Plus, TSR wasn't always the games industry giant it eventually became.

 

[Ranger REG]

Hmph. As I said earlier, skip the fiction.

 

[Ottergame]

Hmph. As I said earlier, skip the fiction.

Aggreed. If it came between not having any collection or a collection without a bunch of hack-eyed short fiction, I say drop the fiction.

 

[johnsemlak]

Hmph. As I said earlier, skip the fiction.

I"d certainly be OK without the fiction.

However, if they remove the fiction (or anything), doesn't that undo WotC's potential arguement that the electronic release is a reprint, with no changes?

 

[jkasonII]

The rumor that I heard was that the settlement was that the new edition of Kingdoms of Kalamar got to use the Dungeons & Dragons logo.

It's quite possible that both rumors are true.

While it is possible that some of the rumors are true, Kingdoms of Kalamar is trademarked and owned by Kenzer and Co., and as such, they had to pay a liscencing (SP?) fee to use the D&D logo. And, by the way, everything that has the D&D logo has to be approved by WOTC (And, believe me, if it didn't, the Goods & Gear book that was just released would have come out almost 6 months before WOTC's Arms & Equipment guide).

Note - Goods & Gear is a dual-stat book. Heavily leaning towards Kalamar and d20, with notes for Hackmaster.

 

[Ranger REG]

I"d certainly be OK without the fiction.

However, if they remove the fiction (or anything), doesn't that undo WotC's potential arguement that the electronic release is a reprint, with no changes?

Well, hindsight is 20/20.

If they had announced they will not reprint the short fiction due to legal issues before the Archive CD-ROM set was released, would there have been vocal complaints about it? Maybe.

Would Dragon subscribers and readers who have owned printed issues won't buy this Archive product because of the removal? Maybe.