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Message: <blockquote data-quote="modiphius" data-source="post: 7691078" data-attributes="member: 6696016">One of the reasons licenses are nurtured / owned by companies or 'estates' is to protect the integrity of the story, maintain it in publication for new generations and to ensure bad quality versions are not sold to unknowing customers. A good example is Conan Properties who actually returned Conan to publication (it had been out of print), and ensured publishers used only authentic Robert E Howard material not later pastiche material. By maintaining the copyright and getting fees (from the likes of us making the official RPG) they can afford to keep protecting the IP and making sure you're not buying a badly reproduced copy from a dodgy publisher but an excellently edited and printed version that's good value. They ensure new generations can read Conan as it was meant to be read not what some publisher thinks people should get. Fan work is good - but as the makers of Star Trek Axanar discovered as soon as they made it look professional and promised it to be as good as anything on TV it started to conflict with professional content. As over a $million dollar was raised for costs to pay actors, SFX, studio space etc this leads us in to another thing which is often over looked by the BUT ITS FREE IM NOT MAKING ANY MONEY argument. Sure YOU are not making money but when you give away a book for free via LULU - LULU are making money from customers buying the print run, the producers of Axanar weren't making any money on the film, but over a $1 million was being paid for costs like studio space, FX studios etc. So a lot of people were making money from the work taking place on the film. That means SOMEONE is making money from unlicensed content. So you can see why the owners suddenly have an issue with this. It starts to conflict with all the hard work they do to get reputable companies working with them. If everyone was working on the project for free (the usual interpretation of a fan project) then I suspect they wouldn't have had a problem, but then what was the $million needed for?And finally if you still think copyright should be limited, think about it this way, so if after all my investment in my game idea, all the time, money and effort you can take my story in X years, what if instead I come and move in to the house you've been paying the mortage on for X years - surely it shouldn't be yours after all this time right? Why should you get to live in it on your own? What about when you die can I have your house then because why should your family get to benefit from it?  That company you've been working on for your year's, not making a profit, remortaged your house and lost your health over and now it's massive? Well I'm going to set up a copy of it and use your name and do exactly what you do because it's such a cool idea and I don't fancy having to work hard for it, that's okay right? People invest huge amounts in great IP's - the reason you want to play in that world, or recreate it yourself, is because it's so damned good and that's usually because people have spent years working on it often without much reward and making sure it's the kind of world you want to play in. Sure they could be making tens of thousands of dollars now, billions even? So what they earnt it. EVEN if they bought the brand, they paid for it. They are investing in it so you can keep watching or playing in that world  But you're house is worth hundred of thousands of dollars now after buying it from someone else. Should you get to enjoy it? Of course you paid for it.  I love fan material and encourage fans to write stuff for our games, we're even developing a portal for fans to submit content and get rewarded for it. But as soon as someone creates a professional looking product that stops someone buying one of our games we'd either talk to them and say 'hey let's publish this for you' or ask them to take it down. I always think you should work together to avoid issues like this though, we are, after all, doing this for the love of games</blockquote>

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