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
*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
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Lone Wolf sends Cease & Desist letters to anyone using the term 'Army Builder'
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="aboyd" data-source="post: 5078107" data-attributes="member: 44797"><p>As far as I can tell, you got many things horribly, horribly wrong -- and not just from a "you were a douchbag" level, as Morrus intimated, but also from a legal level. Here is some stuff to run by that IP attorney of yours.</p><p></p><p>First, your email to PP invokes the DMCA to protect your trademark (or more accurately, your wordmark). For those that don't get it, Rob invoked a <em>copyright</em> act to protect his <em>wordmark</em>. Here is a link that explains how the DMCA and trademarks/wordmarks are unrelated:</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/trademark-user-generated-content" target="_blank">Trademark: User-Generated Content | Citizen Media Law Project</a></p><p></p><p>So on the face of it, the email is nonsensical, and in my case I would have done as the guys running EN World have suggested, and ignored it.</p><p></p><p>Having said that, let's go ahead and assume that your DMCA citation <em>did</em> apply (it doesn't, but you've tried to make it work, so let's play it out). <a href="http://www.mcanerin.com/EN/articles/copyright-03.asp" target="_blank">The DMCA has <em>very specific rules</em> about how it works</a>, and your rambling letter follows almost none of it. First, it doesn't follow the proscribed format -- this is actually meant to be a legal document, and the legal forms have been provided by the government, and you didn't use them. But additionally, the DMCA requires you to specifically cite <em>each infraction</em> and <em>you didn't.</em></p><p></p><p>There is no law in place that says that a forum owner must assist in (or wholly bear the burden of) educating the forum members on another company's IP, yet you suggested this as part of your legal claim. I'm no lawyer, but doesn't that make this email of yours some kind of legal falsehood, Rob? Ask your IP attorney. Ask him to cite this law that he apparently believes would allow you to force other site owners to do your "educating the public" work for you.</p><p></p><p>So, we've got a messed up legal threat that doesn't even follow the very rules it cites. And this letter puts the burden of work on someone who is legally exempt from that burden. And this letter doesn't cite specific violations, so there is additional burden on the owner that at the very least, the DMCA says is <em>your</em> obligation Rob, not PPs.</p><p></p><p>Is it any wonder then that this wholly unrealistic letter which gets so much wrong is handled in a manner far beyond what usually happens with (proper) DMCA takedown notices?</p><p></p><p>I get a DMCA takedown notice for my forum that has a specific URL to a specific post by a specific poster, and I sigh and knock it out. I get a blanket, "figure out how to fix everything for us" email, and I'm going to do as Morrus implied -- shrug and say, "I can't read a million posts, and the law says I don't have to, sorry." Or, if I'd rather not bother with the legal back & forth, I'll just utterly <em>obliterate</em> anything to do with a company that is so sloppy with legal matters. I'd want no part of it. And look, that's kinda what PP did. I can't blame them, if I'd consider doing the same.</p><p></p><p>To me, <em>that's</em> what's objectionable about your handling of this, Rob.</p><p></p><p>EDIT: Steerpike7 beat me to this by over an hour. Shoot. I need to write my posts more quickly.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="aboyd, post: 5078107, member: 44797"] As far as I can tell, you got many things horribly, horribly wrong -- and not just from a "you were a douchbag" level, as Morrus intimated, but also from a legal level. Here is some stuff to run by that IP attorney of yours. First, your email to PP invokes the DMCA to protect your trademark (or more accurately, your wordmark). For those that don't get it, Rob invoked a [i]copyright[/i] act to protect his [i]wordmark[/i]. Here is a link that explains how the DMCA and trademarks/wordmarks are unrelated: [url=http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/trademark-user-generated-content]Trademark: User-Generated Content | Citizen Media Law Project[/url] So on the face of it, the email is nonsensical, and in my case I would have done as the guys running EN World have suggested, and ignored it. Having said that, let's go ahead and assume that your DMCA citation [i]did[/i] apply (it doesn't, but you've tried to make it work, so let's play it out). [url=http://www.mcanerin.com/EN/articles/copyright-03.asp]The DMCA has [i]very specific rules[/i] about how it works[/url], and your rambling letter follows almost none of it. First, it doesn't follow the proscribed format -- this is actually meant to be a legal document, and the legal forms have been provided by the government, and you didn't use them. But additionally, the DMCA requires you to specifically cite [i]each infraction[/i] and [i]you didn't.[/i] There is no law in place that says that a forum owner must assist in (or wholly bear the burden of) educating the forum members on another company's IP, yet you suggested this as part of your legal claim. I'm no lawyer, but doesn't that make this email of yours some kind of legal falsehood, Rob? Ask your IP attorney. Ask him to cite this law that he apparently believes would allow you to force other site owners to do your "educating the public" work for you. So, we've got a messed up legal threat that doesn't even follow the very rules it cites. And this letter puts the burden of work on someone who is legally exempt from that burden. And this letter doesn't cite specific violations, so there is additional burden on the owner that at the very least, the DMCA says is [i]your[/i] obligation Rob, not PPs. Is it any wonder then that this wholly unrealistic letter which gets so much wrong is handled in a manner far beyond what usually happens with (proper) DMCA takedown notices? I get a DMCA takedown notice for my forum that has a specific URL to a specific post by a specific poster, and I sigh and knock it out. I get a blanket, "figure out how to fix everything for us" email, and I'm going to do as Morrus implied -- shrug and say, "I can't read a million posts, and the law says I don't have to, sorry." Or, if I'd rather not bother with the legal back & forth, I'll just utterly [i]obliterate[/i] anything to do with a company that is so sloppy with legal matters. I'd want no part of it. And look, that's kinda what PP did. I can't blame them, if I'd consider doing the same. To me, [i]that's[/i] what's objectionable about your handling of this, Rob. EDIT: Steerpike7 beat me to this by over an hour. Shoot. I need to write my posts more quickly. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Lone Wolf sends Cease & Desist letters to anyone using the term 'Army Builder'
Top