Using Art in Fantasy Grounds during a Stream?

[cyphus5]

Hey all,
I'm looking to start streaming to twitch in the next couple of weeks. It will be a homebrew game for the most part. I am a big Pinterest fan and often like to use art as an inspiration for NPCs, scenes, maps, etc. I usually put this art in Fantasy Grounds and share it on screen with players.

Is it safe to assume that doing this on Twitch is a copyright nightmare and is going to get me slapped with a DMCA? I'm definitely not using the art in my banners or overlays, it'll just be appearing when shared with players.

[Nylanfs]

From a strict legal standpoint yes. But unless you are making money from your twitch stream you can make a good faith argument that it falls under Fair Use. If you want to make sure to cover your backside, use Google Image Search (https://images.google.com/) to find the original artists and them list their website and properly attribute their works.

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[Ram Tyr]

While it may be a fair use to show an image to your group... once you are streaming you are publishing the art to an audience not involved in your game. I would recommend getting permission from the artists when you find the image. Be a friend to the artists! Also, I believe fair use assumes you legally own the product at issue (in this case the art), which may not be the case if you are simply copying images from the internet. Anyway, be cautious... maybe get some legal advice as this likely is complicated by the applicable law where the artists is, where you are, and maybe anyplace in between.

[Full Bleed]

Hey all,
I'm looking to start streaming to twitch in the next couple of weeks. It will be a homebrew game for the most part. I am a big Pinterest fan and often like to use art as an inspiration for NPCs, scenes, maps, etc. I usually put this art in Fantasy Grounds and share it on screen with players.

Is it safe to assume that doing this on Twitch is a copyright nightmare and is going to get me slapped with a DMCA? I'm definitely not using the art in my banners or overlays, it'll just be appearing when shared with players.
This is a far bigger issue for Pinterest than it is for you.

Don't sweat this.

[Nickademus]

I'm not into streaming, but from what I know of it, if copyright was an issue, 90% of D&D streams would have to stop. I don't think streaming your FG game is anymore a violation than posting a screen shot of it here. Any copyright art that happens to be displayed when doing so is coincidence (unless you are obviously displaying a screenshot/stream solely for the purpose of showing off the art).

[Myrdin Potter]

If you get technical and take into account all the different laws out there, taking any copyright image and and showing it without permission could get you in trouble. However, there are so many caeveouts for such things (otherwise every crowd shot on TV would be a problem), that I doubt you will have a problem.

I have never heard of art in a published module (maps and images) causing any streaming issues. As long as you are not incorporating the art into your logo or using it specifically into advertising of your stream, I would not worry about it.

[Nylanfs]

Now the RIAA may attempt to crack down on background songs, because they are assholes.

[OTG_Wraith]

It's not hard to reverse image search and find out who owns an image and then visit their page get their email and send them a polite request asking for usage.

The same goes for maps and tokens. Make an effort to show these people some appreciation. They work hard and possess a lot of talent and make our gaming experience so much richer. Be respectful.

If that doesn't impress you, think about this; when Critical Role was just starting out Matthew Mercer did what other streamers were doing and just grabbed some art and threw it up for his player's backstories. He got sued, hard. You can get away with it while you're starting out, but if you start making an income, you could be hit hard, too. Then the judge will decide how much you owe them, and it won't just be a polite request.

Don't be this guy...
https://i.imgur.com/snLplqq.jpg

[Full Bleed]

when Critical Role was just starting out Matthew Mercer did what other streamers were doing and just grabbed some art and threw it up for his player's backstories. He got sued, hard.
Can you cite your sources on this? I'd be interested in this specifics of this case.

[OTG_Wraith]

You can read it from his own post (https://www.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/comments/4lfm4f/no_spoilers_old_videos_being_blurred_out/).

But, this shouldn't be an issue revolving around fear of being sued. You should ask permission for and pay for copyrighted content because this is a very slim margin industry. The people making all the cool art, rulesets, modules, and just about everything else you enjoy using are working for a very small paycheck. For the one or two successes in each field whether it be game design, art, music or performance art like Critical Role you have many more hundreds or thousands barely making ends meet from their income on their products.

If you buy the art, module, or music with the appropriate licenses and you don't want to give credit, that's one thing, still not great, but they got their income. For the ones trying to make a name however, sometimes word of mouth is all they have. When someone in chat mentions how cool that map is, or asks where you got those tokens or image it would help a lot if you could give them a link and a name rather than just shrug and say, "somewhere off the internet". It could be the difference between you getting another possibly even cooler image/music/map/token from that artist or them tossing in the towel.

[Myrdin Potter]

The case where he said he had an issue was a promotional video, not the actual playing of the game. He used a lot of unrelated, copyright art in a promotitional video for a commercial enterprise.

I have not heard of any issues where people have been playing modules and used the art that came with it. Home brew is different as the artist never has been paid for the work to be displayed in the manner you say.

Artists are like anyone else, they work, they deserve to get paid. There is a lot of stock art for very cheap and lots and lots of royalty free photos that can be used with just a little bit of effort, and lots of maps in the public domain.

Music they actually have automated software that listens for it and most of the major streaming platforms have been made to use it by the indistry. That is something that there are centuries of cases and ip and laws around performing vs. listening at home.

[Topdecker]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

A mountain of copyright-free materials - all you have to do is to take the time to search it.

[LordEntrails]

You can also set you Google image search criteria by license type.

[ddavison]

All the official packages available in the store here are set up to allow you to use during streams if you want. That is one of the reasons I negotiated a deal with the folks over at Beamdog is so that myself and other players would be able to use the cool player portraits from Baldur's Gate and their other games within Fantasy Grounds streams.