Art from MM copy question?

[Elvinis75]

Is it legal to copy the pictures in the MM and make stand up/ popup figures?

 

[jgbrowning]

Is it legal to copy the pictures in the MM and make stand up/ popup figures?

If for your personal use its not legal, but no one's going to knock your door down to prosecute you.

If for publication, your door will get knocked down.


so the answer is basically, no.

joe b.

 

[Sirius_Black]

If for your personal use its not legal, but no one's going to knock your door down to prosecute you.

If for publication, your door will get knocked down.


so the answer is basically, no.

joe b.

A very intelligent and succint reply Mr. Browning.

I would like to add that if someone does post the pictures or other material from the WOTC book online and gets caught, simply tell the authorities you have a few names for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). That information alone should get you off with a light sentence.

 

[Elvinis75]

If for your personal use its not legal, but no one's going to knock your door down to prosecute you.

If for publication, your door will get knocked down.


so the answer is basically, no.

joe b.

Since when is it not legal for personal use?

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

I'm pretty sure as long as you're not making a profit off of it, it's legal.

Even if it isn't legal, no government official's going to bother taking the initiative to prosecute you for such a petty offense.

So in other words, go ahead and do it.

 

[d4]

Since when is it not legal for personal use?

since, well, ever.

if it were legal to make photocopies of the pictures in the MM, there would be some fine print next to each picture that said, "Permission granted to photocopy for personal use only." like there is on the blank character sheet at the back of the PHB.

without that text, there is no permission granted.

 

[Fast Learner]

It's always been illegal, even for personal use. See http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-definitions.html for a useful faq. The most applicable questions here are:

5. What is copyright infringement?
As a general matter, copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner.

and another faq there, at http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html

4. How much of someone else's work can I use without getting permission?
Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports. There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances. See FL 102, Fair Use, and Circular 21, Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians.

As noted above, though, no one is likely to prosecute you for such personal use. That doesn't make it legal, though.

 

[Fast Learner]

(duplicate post)

 

[Aitch Eye]

If you go to the art galleries for the various books at the WotC site, they promote using the illustrations from Monsters of Faerun and the Dragonlance Campaign Setting as "visual aids", though the MM only has the more debatable phrase "enjoyable resource". However, they pretty clearly intend for you to use the illustrations they've put up on their site in your games.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article1.asp?x=dnd/ag/gallery,3