Fan Site Legalities

[Umbran]

With the OGL and such, dealing with the legalities of websites and intellectual properties is somewhat more clear for D&D these days. Still, the subject can be a bit daunting. Apparently, someone's done something to clarify the isues for common folks.

This joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and University of San Francisco law school clinics looks to be more targetted to people who want to do fan sites based off TV shows and the like, but it may still hold some kernels for folks here.

Someone here with expertise in the area might want to look at
http://www.chillingeffects.org/
and tell us how accurate and applicable it is.

 

[Don]

It's nice to see that there are organizations out there still willing to fight the good fight against corporations.

Now if only we could get rid of the oxymoronic idea of "intellectual property". Then our society could truly advance beyond the stagnant cesspool of greed that it's become.

"That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature.... Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. " - Thomas Jefferson


Sorry. Discussions on "intellectual property" send me into rant mode...

 

[Desdichado]

Now if only we could get rid of the oxymoronic idea of "intellectual property". Then our society could truly advance beyond the stagnant cesspool of greed that it's become.

Instead, we'll migrate to the stagnant cesspool where no one creates anything anymore because they can't make a living doing it.

BTW, this is interesting because in the chat last night, Ryan Dancey said there is a more lenient version of the OGL in the pipeline that would apply to fansites and the like. I'm curious to see what's in it.

 

[Maerdwyn]

Instead, we'll migrate to the stagnant cesspool where no one creates anything anymore because they can't make a living doing it.

BTW, this is interesting because in the chat last night, Ryan Dancey said there is a more lenient version of the OGL in the pipeline that would apply to fansites and the like. I'm curious to see what's in it.

Actually, I think we'll migrate into the stagnant cesspool of a political discussion; hopefully elsewhere

As to the "BTW" of your post: Cool!

 

[Umbran]

It was exactly that mention in the chat that made me think of posting the link here.

[edit: chopped off a note on the subject of IP, because it is too close to politics for my liking]

 

[Desdichado]

Yeah, I'm very curious to see what becomes of it. I'm interested in putting up non-core classes on the web (like if I borrow the WoT Woodsman for my campaign) for my players who lack that book. Or if I make minor modifications to a core class. Maybe I ought to check out Book of Eldritch Might II in more detail on how they did that. Although I'm not sure those were really minor modifications.

Under the OGL, I guess I couldn't do any of that. Under the principle of "nobody cares" I could. Under the principle of "nobody will care" I can do some of that, depending on how they open it up without ever worrying about "what if someone decides they do care?"

 

[Don]

Instead, we'll migrate to the stagnant cesspool where no one creates anything anymore because they can't make a living doing it.

Like the time before the 20th century when theatre didn't exist because no one could profit from plays?
Like the time before 1831 when no music was ever made because it was not copyrightable?
Like the time before 1710 when no one wrote any books because they were not copyrightable by authors?

I'm not against copyright completely, I'm just against it in its current form, which is quite contrary to its original intent of:

"[promoting] the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for a limited time to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

Copyright law no longer follows this ideal. Not by a long shot. Copyright and patent laws nowadays are regularly used to suppress science and the useful arts.

Ah, but that's an argument for another time, I suppose.


So, what's this of a new, kinder, gentler OGL?

 

[Umbran]

Don:
Modern ability to mass reproduce music and the printed word make things a darned sight different than the 1700s and 1800s. Compared to those days, we have a flood of creative output available to the general public. If you'd like to return to the relative trickle of yesteryear, fine, get rid of IP.

Let us consider the modern novel - it still takes a long time, and a lot of effort to write one. Now, how many people do you suppose would give up that time from a normal money making job if they knew that they'd get absolutely nothing in return?

IP does not create greed. It creates an avenue for a person to make up some of the economic loss entailed in spending time creating.

 

[Ranger REG]

It's nice to see that there are organizations out there still willing to fight the good fight against corporations.

Now if only we could get rid of the oxymoronic idea of "intellectual property". Then our society could truly advance beyond the stagnant cesspool of greed that it's become.

"That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature.... Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. " - Thomas Jefferson


Sorry. Discussions on "intellectual property" send me into rant mode...

Fine, as long we get rid of the idea of "physical property."

 

[Lady Danyon]

Well, being a fan site, and being a publisher are two *very* different things in my book.


I am going to look into this and keep an eye on it and see where it goes myself.


Thanks for posting this!!! Great info, and very much appreciated!




-Danyon