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Delekahn
January 28th, 2005, 14:47
Hi,
Just wanted to say I got my new scanner and I am starting to make a campaign for The Sunless Citadel D&D Adventure.

If I like doing it, then I will start the Forge of Fury. I own the first four in the series, so who knows.

Later,
Delekahn

msd
January 28th, 2005, 19:45
Would really be interested in seeing the Forge of Fury...very cool.

WolfStar76
February 2nd, 2005, 15:57
While I'd love to see this too. . . .

. . . what's the legal aspect of distributing these adventures? I know that the OGL allows the source material, but I'm thinking the adventure path modules are protected content.

Just my .02

[EDIT]

Guess this is already covered in a new thread.

M.A.T.T.
February 25th, 2005, 09:24
I'd really like to see some peoples campaigns released for the public sector (i.e. the FG massive as we are collectively known)

Running games from dungeon magazine is great, the maps and pics are available from the paizo website and if like me you use voice coms to chat, there isn't much more preparation..

Marvellous.

Visigodo
February 25th, 2005, 16:17
M.A.T.T. theres a little problem with dungeon magazine adventures, you can run it but not put it for community to download. This was discussed here.

https://forums.fantasygrounds.com/viewtopic.php?t=285

Thore_Ironrock
February 26th, 2005, 02:29
Regarding Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury, I happen to know that Code Monkey Publishing is currently "porting" those to their Interactive Adventure computer tabletop gaming tool. From there they will probably be going to things like Fantasy Grounds and their new product, RPG Toolkit (due out next year).

After reading the other thread (on legal issues of duplicating published product), I'll admidt that there is some "gray" area here. However, if even one copy of what would be considered copyrighted work makes it beyond the creator's personal use, I would think they would be open to legal action. In other words, if Delekahn does these conversions and posts them online, it is likely WoTC will go after him. I would guess that just by posting his intentions to the forum (which says to me he was going to share his work, otherwise why make the post), he is at the very least looking at a cease and desist letter --- especially if WoTC has commissioned Code Monkey to convert these modules to Interactive Adventures (and/or Fantasy Grounds).

One thing people out there need to understand is that whether you can legally tap dance around this issue or not, Wizards is still the big boy on the block with the most money in their pocket. You can bitch and moan all you want, but in the end their lawyers (or should I say Hasbro's lawyers) will likely get the upper hand and win the war. In other words, porting WoTC's (or anyone elses) intellectual property and sharing it online is probably a bad idea, in my mind, for the FG community

There is another angle here to consider as well, something I don't think people realize when they do things like this. If the Fantasy Ground community becomes nothing more than a group of plagerizers and copyright violators, WoTC can also take action against Smite Works. While they could not sue them directly, they could change the rules surrounding the d20 license that would in fact put and end to it's use in Fantasy Grounds. They've already did this regarding using miniature games with the d20 license, so I don't think they would even blink about applying the same logic to electronic products.

People tend to forget that Wizards of the Coast owns D&D, and controls the rules surrounding the d20 license world. If their next version of the d20 license says that d20/SRD cannot be used in electronic products, then SM will have to pull it from their product. In my mind that is detrimental to the community and the future of the product.

So, in the end I for one am against plagerizing any publisher's material to Fantasy Grounds for any reason **unless** they have said company's permissions. Regardless of whether or not the legal issues surrounding it are not crystal clear, in the end it has the chance to prove more harm than good.

Now, I also state all of this because I am currently working with a group of people that want to bring professionally published products to Fantasy Grounds. I can't say much at the moment, but I would hate to see publishers shy away from FG because people are copying and distributing copyrighted work --- and, I'll state this frankly --- and pissing off WoTC.

For those old enough to remember the days of T$R, do you really want to go through that mess again?

-Thore

Ilwan
February 26th, 2005, 08:59
Agree with Thore_Ironrock. The community needs to stay clear of copyright violations. The d20 OGL is an opportunity for publishers and not a free space.

richvalle
February 26th, 2005, 18:47
Agreed. What we probably need here are a couple of Moderators to keep an eye on things and remove/lock posts that seem 'wrong' with a gental reminder such as Thore's about how things are.

rv

Dacileva
February 27th, 2005, 14:10
People tend to forget that Wizards of the Coast owns D&D, and controls the rules surrounding the d20 license world. If their next version of the d20 license says that d20/SRD cannot be used in electronic products, then SM will have to pull it from their product. In my mind that is detrimental to the community and the future of the product.

One thing to mention: WotC/Hasbro only owns the d20 System Trademark License, which is what allows people to put the d20 logo on products (such as this one, admittedly). The d20 STL is what WotC can modify to punish companies they disagree with, like they did with The Valar Project's "Book of Erotic Fantasy".

The Open Gaming License, and the SRD itself, on the other hand, WotC has absolutely no control over the use of, except as detailed in any version of the OGL itself. The OGL is based on Open Source, and as such it cannot be revoked or modified in ways that invalidate any prior version of itself. If a company is willing to forego the d20 logo, they can use everything that's in the SRD with impunity, and WotC can never do anything to stop them, and they know they shouldn't, anyway. (This is why companies like Sword & Sorcery/White Wolf can put out both d20 products like the Scarred Lands lines and OGL-only products like Warcraft d20 and EverQuest d20.)

All of the above notwithstanding: no matter the license, distributing copyrighted material is a really bad idea. I'm not disagreeing with that at all, just offering a clarification of the actual status of d20/OGL/SRD.