WotC The other snake in the grass: the Wizards Fan Content Policy

Snarf Zagyg

Notorious Liquefactionist
This is what I have so far for my patent-pending products...

Magnetic Mini has no.....

Effin' magnets, how do they work?


For that matter, frakkin' law, how does it work? If you are unsure, get legal advice. Real legal advice. From a licensed attorney, in your jurisdiction, that you are paying. Or take your chances "taking down" a large corporation that can afford their own giant team of winged monkeys well-dressed BigLaw attorneys. The choice is yours.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

And the Community wept when they heard Anaxarchus discourse about an infinite number of policies that WoTC had, and when others inquired what ailed them, "Is it not worthy of tears," the Community said, "that, when the number of policies is infinite, the Community has not yet fought against them all?"
-Plutarch, confusingly.
Netflix's Cleopatra Documentary has nothing on you :ROFLMAO:
 


Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
Hey. I have come up with a system that I cannot disclose, and I am writing my T&C's ect. I was wondering if you could help me? As an observation, they are deliberately obfuscating legal documentation e.g. "Don’t use Wizards’ IP in other games." by including in the same sentence "your own or other people’s games or game components (e.g., rule books, tokens, figures), regardless of whether it is distributed for free".

I am of the understanding that physical products built on top of gaming mechanics in similar nature or likeness is allowed. "Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles - The Board Game Designers Guide to US Intellectual Property Law –... "
-->
Therefore WotC are in fact abusing copywriting claims by explicitly implying something which is not true. Solely to discourage the creation of new or like systems e.g. fictional in nature which fall outside a particular character's attribute(s) e,g, story and related characters or in this instance (worlds). In essence, they are lumping false pretenses into a non-legally binding document to deliberately obfuscate others from building physical products which can be used including but not limited to dungeons and dragons.

First, a Fan Content Policy is what it says - a POLICY. It is a warning to fans about what, by policy, they will consider actionable, and what they won't. There is no claim that it is legally binding. It is just a statement of their intent and boundaries.

Next, the Fan Content Policy is about FAN content, not professional content. If you are a fan, and write up some stuff you're using in your home game to post on the internet, or you wrote a funny song you want to put on youtube, you can turn to the FCP of guidance on what's okay. If you are a company, making product for sale, the Fan Content Policy isn't applicable.

Do go speak to an intellectual property lawyer before hoping to "take them down".
 

Gradine

The Elephant in the Room (she/they)
Effin' magnets, how do they work?
cae.jpg
 


CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing
But seriously though: why so confrontational? Just publish your* game. If people like what you've created* they will buy it, there's no need to "take down" anyone.




*This assumes you are creating and publishing your own original work. If you're trying to publish someone else's IP, you're going to get laughed at (at best).
 








see

Pedantic Grognard
Some advice:

I am of the understanding that physical products built on top of gaming mechanics in similar nature or likeness is allowed. "Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles - The Board Game Designers Guide to US Intellectual Property Law –... "
You're in need of a copyright lawyer, if you're trying to navigate RPG copyright by reading advice to board game designers.

Magnetic Mini has no affiliation with Dungeons & Dragons, and hereby renounces all responsibilities for the publication of material by others despite being covered in Wizards of the Coast (WoTC) Open Gaming License, Version 1.0a, on our website. Magnetic mini acknowledges that while Wizards of the Coast claim rights to the trademark of Dungeons and Dragons, along with the stylised use of the & symbol, WotC do not have sole claim to the use of “&” symbol and the term “D&D”. Magnetic Mini acknowledges the acronym “D&D” as a generalised term used to describe games of likeness, including but not limited to Dungeons and Dragons, along with mechanics of likeness set out in various Systems Reference Documents (SRDs), specifically, pertaining to Wargaming and Fantasy Tabletop Role Playing Games (TRPGs) (see reference DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Trademark of WIZARDS OF THE COAST LLC - Registration Number 3155935 - Serial Number 76652346 :: Justia Trademarks).
You will definitely need a trademark lawyer, if you're going to claim that WotC's registered trademarks have been genercized.

Therefore WotC are in fact abusing copywriting claims by explicitly implying
You likely need an outside editor for the written parts of your game, if you're writing sentences that in the space of six words confuse "copywriting" (the act of creating advertising or other marketing material) with "copyrighting" (the assertion of legal rights to a work) and then claim it is possible to "explicitly imply" anything (to imply something is to make an implicit claim; implicit is the antonym of explicit).
 

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition Starter Box

An Advertisement

Advertisement4

Top