Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
How come no one's publishing the old Corebooks?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Jack Simth" data-source="post: 5295984" data-attributes="member: 29252"><p>It's a combination of things.</p><p></p><p>If you're not WotC, then you have to get WotC's permission to distribute WotC's stuff (copyright laws).</p><p>If you are WotC, then anyone printing your old stuff is in direct competition with your new stuff (as it fills the same essential market). Anyone selling your stuff is using your research and marketing base to sell stuff to your potential clients, undercutting your profits.</p><p>If you are WotC, then there's an additional problem with other people selling your old products: The D&D trademark. Can't have it distributed by anyone else, as that would cause severe problems and complications of various natures (legal stuff).</p><p></p><p>So in order to legally print a 3.5 Player's Handbook (or Dungeon Master's Guide, or Monster Manual, or Spell Compendium, or ...), you must get permission from WotC. And WotC has two very, very good reasons to say "no". Essentially, you'd need to buy controlling interest in Wizards of the Coast, or come up with enough money to purchase the entire D&D franchise from them (and it's a profitable franchise, so they'd be really, really loathe to part with it) before you can print any WotC 3.5 books in a legal manner.</p><p></p><p>Or, you know, take a set of books to a place where copyright law doesn't apply (International law is really multinational treaty - there's places where it doesn't apply), copy them there, and try to sell them there... but good luck with that, as the only places that don't participate in copyright laws don't have noticeable markets.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jack Simth, post: 5295984, member: 29252"] It's a combination of things. If you're not WotC, then you have to get WotC's permission to distribute WotC's stuff (copyright laws). If you are WotC, then anyone printing your old stuff is in direct competition with your new stuff (as it fills the same essential market). Anyone selling your stuff is using your research and marketing base to sell stuff to your potential clients, undercutting your profits. If you are WotC, then there's an additional problem with other people selling your old products: The D&D trademark. Can't have it distributed by anyone else, as that would cause severe problems and complications of various natures (legal stuff). So in order to legally print a 3.5 Player's Handbook (or Dungeon Master's Guide, or Monster Manual, or Spell Compendium, or ...), you must get permission from WotC. And WotC has two very, very good reasons to say "no". Essentially, you'd need to buy controlling interest in Wizards of the Coast, or come up with enough money to purchase the entire D&D franchise from them (and it's a profitable franchise, so they'd be really, really loathe to part with it) before you can print any WotC 3.5 books in a legal manner. Or, you know, take a set of books to a place where copyright law doesn't apply (International law is really multinational treaty - there's places where it doesn't apply), copy them there, and try to sell them there... but good luck with that, as the only places that don't participate in copyright laws don't have noticeable markets. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
How come no one's publishing the old Corebooks?
Top