Module Request

[CarlPalmer]

[MODERATOR - request for non-shareable material removed]

Thanks in advance.

[Trenloe]

Welcome to the forums Carl.

I'm sorry, but this module is no longer shareable. We take copyright a publisher ownership of material seriously on these forums. I don't want a reply to your first post to seem unwelcoming, but this is the forum policy. So, please don't request material that can't be shared. I hope you understand. And welcome again! :)

[CarlPalmer]

Honestly I get that, and I am not trying to bypass copyright at all.

I am just curious what the issue is, how can freely distributed material from the publisher be unable to be shared? I can go to WOTC's website and get the material for free. All that is being distributed at this point is the time someone took to put it into a module, which he also we freely sharing. I am honestly not trying to be confrontational, but rather seeking understanding.

[Moon Wizard]

Just because something is offered for free by a publisher does not mean it can be freely redistributed or repackaged by others. It's the way that copyright law works in most countries, especially US. The publisher has rights to control how their content is legally distributed. They have to explicitly grant someone else rights to redistribute their content or repackage the content for another medium (such as a virtual tabletop).

Regards,
JPG

[LordEntrails]

WotC can choose to freely distribute it, since they own it. Anyone else who wants to distribute something, even freely, requires a license. If they don't want to allow it to be distributed on any other websites, they can choose to do that (actually, by default that is the legal assumption).

Also, WotC is not distributing a FG module of it. They are diistributing a pdf version of it.

[CarlPalmer]

OK, fair enough. Well not really, free should be free, unless lawyers get involved. ::facepalm::

Thanks for the explanation, that makes sense.

[Trenloe]

Well not really, free should be free, unless lawyers get involved.
Primarily, it is there is protect artists. Imagine if you did lots of work and published some of it for free, but you wanted to keep control of that material in the public environment - not have others change it, mess around with it, you have plans for future updates to it, etc.. Then, a few days later you see someone else has re-packaged your work and redistributed it for free without your permission. This is now completely out of your control and has a life of it's own. Some people might be OK with this - in which case they can release their material under the OGL, community commons (CC) license, GPL, etc. and many people do. Most people probably wouldn't be OK - hence their work is covered by copyright and you need their permission to redistribute it in any form.

I'm fine with a publisher deciding how their material is published and distributed - it's the result of their creative process and hard work after all. It's good of WotC to publish some of their material for free - do with it what you wish in your private game. But respect their wishes to not have it repackaged, changed/modified and redistributed all over the place.

[damned]

Also in many cases its not just conversions that you cannot share. Even though the PDF is free from the Wizards website you are not allowed to share the PDF yourself. Others need to go to the Source and get it themselves.