D&D General WotC is at it again

[Umbran]

What is this even from, the D&D beyond Fourms?

D&D Beyond, in general.

So, this will include homebrew content monsters and magic items and such, as well as messages.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I thought this was already a thing and seemed pretty typical to me. Also, I think this is more to protect WotC and less that they are actively wanting to take and use your all of our ideas.

 

[AlViking]

Apropos of nothing, somebody in real life told me recently that WotC had nicked his idea. This from somebody who had in no way interacted with WotC and who WotC was in no way aware even existed. So if people are willing to accuse companies of nicking their stuff offline they sure as hell are gonna do it with stuff that’s online.

Plus copyright trolls exist. There are people—and companies—out there who will just chance it and sue, claiming their content has been stolen.

It sucks badly that terms of service have to include this stuff these days, but it’s pretty much a necessity, especially if your primary business activity is the creation of content. It is, as folks have pointed out above, pretty much standard these days.

But I think it’s safe to say WotC doesn’t want your forum posts.

Now I'm imagining WOTC ninja's breaking into people's houses to steal ideas ...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Ya, I doubt this is new because it seems like lots of other stuff other sites have. They mainly don't want somebody to jump on D&D Beyond Board (Or whatever) and lay out their game, monster, or idea, and then sue WotC later when something similar is put out (which was probably in the works prior to the posts). Authors of series are espcailly like that as they can't have people thorowin out ideas constantly on their website and later have somebody claim an idea was stolen by them.

Yeah, there was a pretty well known incident on the Babylon 5 forums where someone posted an idea hat lead to an episode that was in production being scrapped. It was revived in a later season after they to an agreement with the person who posted the idea, who was honest and had no intention of trying to profit from it.

Ever since then this kind of clause has been pretty standard.

 

[FrogReaver]

So what we are saying is all social media is a scam to steal everyone’s ideas… not surprised one bit!

I always knew they were out to get me.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Yeah, there was a pretty well known incident on the Babylon 5 forums where someone posted an idea hat lead to an episode that was in production being scrapped. It was revived in a later season after they to an agreement with the person who posted the idea, who was honest and had no intention of trying to profit from it.

Ever since then this kind of clause has been pretty standard.

I also remember an incident with the webcomic Sluggy Freelance (near the height of its popularity) where someone correctly guessed what would happen next, and, when it proceeded to come to pass as they predicted, accused the author of nicking their idea. From then on, the author only frequented a subforum where speculation was forbidden.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I always wondered who owns the copyright of soemthing you post on a forum like this one or RPG.net or whatever. Just from an academic/curiosity standpoint.

Like, if @Morrus decided to publish The Best of @Snarf Zagyg who would reap the tens of dollars of rewards?

Very briefly- as a general rule, the creator of a work always owns the copyright.

However, if you are using a social media platform, you've often given them broad and expansive rights to use your work (things you put on there) when you sign up. This is usually with a site's TOS. However, while a TOS can provide BIGSOCIAL really really expansive rights to use your work, it cannot magically remove the copyright from the creator.*

A brief aside- the TOS stuff did make sense at the beginning ... there are questions and issues that arise when you post something and a website "copies it" or "displays it" or "uses it" - think about how various websites might take something you posted and put it in a "feed" or a different page or display it on someone else's page to let them know what you're up to. You wouldn't want people suing because of that (and yes, people would sue**). On the other hand ... you can be kind of SOL if the provider uses your content in an ... unexpected way (like training LLMs). But those TOS generally would not give a platform the right to, say, take your posts and publish them as a magazine.


*Yet. I'm sure they are working on that.

**Copyright suits are distressingly common for small businesses that don't understand the internet. Pro tip- do not take a random image you find on the internet and use it on a commercial site. This should be common sense, but .... common sense ain't so common.

 

[Blue]

Apparently they never learn that people really hate this sort of thing. One would think after the last disaster they'd not want to put their hands in the fire again, but apparently it really is too much to ask. Anyway, if you have content there, you might want to remove it or, at least, give them an earful.

No, they learn. They just don't care because it gets in the way of their monetization. Especially with the C-level constantly talking about AI for D&D. This means they can train against everything on their forums, possibly on DMsGuild, etc.

 

[Blue]

Won’t stop people online from overreacting.

Not stop apologists from hand waving it away.

"Sure, they did something you didn't like, but you have no right not to like it because other places have shoved similar down their user's throats."

 

[Zaukrie]

This is not unusual, and they need it for protection from others claiming they stole an idea. It's why authors and TV writers tell you to never send them ideas or tag them with ideas.