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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6190386" data-attributes="member: 37579">It would be much easier to just say “talk to a lawyer” and wash my hands of the conversation, but almost no one will actually talk to a lawyer. A couple hour consultation with a trademark lawyer will cost a couple hundred dollars. While that is a must-do expense for a serious business, it’s prohibitive for a casual website. A lawyer will run the same cost as three to five years of hosting, if the site isn’t a free blog (such as blogger or wordpress). I try and limit myself to advising people what they shouldn’t do and directing them to sources of information so they can educate themselves. If I only tell people what they shouldn’t do it it’s less damaging if I’m wrong, as you don’t get C&Ded for not doing something you could have done. Most errors are pretty common sense. There are a surprising amount of people who don't realize they can't copy images off Google, have no idea what "plagiarism" is, or think that just because a game it no longer being publisher the publisher has abandoned it any anyone can copy or use it now.If some fansite goes down because someone makes a silly mistake, and I could have prevented it by saying “hey, don’t say ‘dragonborn’, switch it out for ‘dragonman’ or ‘half-dragon’.” then that’s on me as much as the author. Ideally, WotC would release a plain language fan site policy. A set of guidelines they want us to follow. So we wouldn’t need to pay for a lawyer just to set up a site that makes a few subclasses or monsters. But they haven’t, and the GSL requires a DC 25 Intelligence check to decipher with some subtle limitations (PDFs as the only valid electronic format, and no changing of the rules only additions). </blockquote>

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