Sharing home made modules Mystara setting

[Rusty Kneecap]

I've been developing Fantasy Grounds Pathfinder modules based on the original Mystara setting published modules and playing them with my group online. so far I've done:


Some of the training games in the original Red Box Basic system
B1 In Search of the Unknown
B2 Keep on the Borderlands
X1 Isle of Dread
X2 Castle Amber



If I wanted to share these with other DMs, what permissions do I need to avoid copywrite infringement?

I can't possibly be the only person doing this so id be interested anyone knows where I can share and get content from other DMs legitimately without infringing copywrite. I love this setting and I'm happy to pay my fair share in appreciation of the people that created it. I've searched everywhere for these modules in a fantasy grounds format online that I can buy, but haven't been able to locate them anywhere. I'd rather just pay for them than invest the hours i've put into uploading data and formatting.

Rusty

[LordEntrails]

Well, what's the license on the content? Are they released under the SRD? The PF community OGL? I'm pretty sure none of those have been released as they pre-date the SRD and were TSR (?) properties.

If not, then to distribute them (for free or cost) would violate copyright. At least until they fall out of copyright protection, which I think is 100 years. But depends upon country/national laws and maybe even type. (I know generally artwork is considered public domain after 100 years, not sure about text or other media).

[Moon Wizard]

Yes, those won't be able to be shared. You may look into whether they would be allowed on DM's Guild, but I'm not familiar with the rules of that site personally.

Regards,
JPG

[Trenloe]

If I wanted to share these with other DMs, what permissions do I need to avoid copywrite infringement?
Basically, you’d need permission from the current copyright holder. You can try emailing them, but for the specific products you list I very much doubt you’d get permission.

As these modules are not for Forgotten Realms or the Ravenloft world, the basics can’t be put on DMs Guild either.

[Ellspeth]

As a writer, last time I checked copyright, at least for the USA, was the life of the creator plus 50 years. This allows the creators to leave ongoing profits from their work to their heirs.

[Nylanfs]

Talk to Goodman Games (https://goodman-games.com/blog/2018/01/28/into-the-borderlands-now-available-for-pre-order/).

[Mirloc]

According to the US Copyright Office:


Works Created on or after January 1, 1978
The law automatically protects a work that is created and fixed in a tangible
medium of expression on or after January 1, 1978, from the moment of its
creation and gives it a term lasting for the author’s life plus an additional 70
years. For a “joint work prepared by two or more authors who did not work
for hire,” the term lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author’s death. For
works made for hire and anonymous and pseudonymous works, the duration
of copyright is 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation,
whichever is shorter (unless the author’s identity is later revealed in Copyright
Office records, in which case the term becomes the author’s life plus 70 years).
For more information about works made for hire, see Circular 9, Works Made
for Hire under the 1976 Copyright Act. For details about pseudonymous works,
see fl 101, Pseudonyms.

Since the work was made for TSR games in December of 1979, it means that the copyright for Keep on the Borderlands will expire well after I do. ;)

[seycyrus]

Hey Rusty,

Did you recreate the maps for these modules, or did you scan in the originals?