Just got a mail from DMsG telling me they are pulling all extensions for sale out

[mattekure]

from One Bookshelf's prespective, its easy to move to DTRPG as they own/manage both products, but they are not taking Smiteworks licensing requirements into consideration for those statements.

[bmos]

Well hopefully someone in FG is reading these mails I'm posting because while I have no issues in moving - I have no intention of doing so until all parties agree - yes you can.

It doesn't get any more official than ddavison saying it's not allowed.

On the internet you will rarely if ever get total consensus, so it's important to consider the source of your information.

[damned]

That statement would make more sense if I was not told to move to DriveThruRPG - let us help you. Then told no you can't. Now yes, maybe you can?

See, had I been a wide eyed innocent, or an incoherent angry nut job, I could have already been shifted someplace else (DTRPG) and immediately dumped to the curb.

For all I know - someone else was made this offer and jumped only to find out to their lament that "too bad we were wrong".

So really, I think someone can clarify if DTRPG is valid place for these extensions. Because being told "Don't GO!" and "GO!" at same time is NOT sitting around taking time to make a decision. That's actively directing me to do things.

DrivethruRPG are not involved with or concerned with any licensing requirements that your products might have with Fantasy Grounds.
The person you are dealing with might not even know what Fantasy Grounds is.
As far as they are concerned - you as a publisher can publish RPG material under the DMsGuild license - if it qualifies - or on the DrivethruRPG platform - if it qualifies.
its like if you included artwork in your adventure module that you didnt have the appropriate license for - DTRPG dont have a system for validating that you have a commercial license for that artwork - thats your responsibility.
Doug has said - if you want to sell products that are designed for FG/FGU then you need a licensing agreement.

[SilentRuin]

DrivethruRPG are not involved with or concerned with any licensing requirements that your products might have with Fantasy Grounds.
The person you are dealing with might not even know what Fantasy Grounds is.
As far as they are concerned - you as a publisher can publish RPG material under the DMsGuild license - if it qualifies - or on the DrivethruRPG platform - if it qualifies.
its like if you included artwork in your adventure module that you didnt have the appropriate license for - DTRPG dont have a system for validating that you have a commercial license for that artwork - thats your responsibility.
Doug has said - if you want to sell products that are designed for FG/FGU then you need a licensing agreement.

So as you seem to be taking the "I know approach" let me ask you for some clarity. I was told if you had a publishing agreement this was all good. I was told that if you had a license agreement it was all good.

I was told that some parties do have this and can publish to DriveThuRPG.

Now, again I'm getting clarity from people reading other peoples responses and documents and not getting any direct input from those who understand it all. So again. I feel - and I could be wrong - that I'm once again getting misinformation based on partial understandings of the situation. I mean I can be wrong for sure.

If nothing else, I've proven I don't know squat.

As I said multiple times in this thread already. If I go - it will be Grim Press doing the going.

[ddavison]

Anything you publish has to be wholly owned by you and/or adhere to any copyright restrictions or licensing requirements that would otherwise apply.

The response from DTRPG is incorrect. Anything published for Fantasy Grounds requires that you comply with our requirements to do so in addition to whatever requirements DTRPG has. That requires either a Publisher Agreement between you and us or it can fit into DMs Guild as part of that separate agreement between us, OBS and WOTC. DriveThruRPG is not in that list. If you had a Publisher Agreement with us, that could allow publishing to DTRPG and it would establish what percentage would need to be sent to Smiteworks, how frequently and how sales would need to be reported. We only allow this for a very small number of publishers.

We have no plans to spin up a bunch of new Publisher Agreements at this time.

[SilentRuin]

Anything you publish has to be wholly owned by you and/or adhere to any copyright restrictions or licensing requirements that would otherwise apply.

The response from DTRPG is incorrect. Anything published for Fantasy Grounds requires that you comply with our requirements to do so in addition to whatever requirements DTRPG has. That requires either a Publisher Agreement between you and us or it can fit into DMs Guild as part of that separate agreement between us, OBS and WOTC. DriveThruRPG is not in that list. If you had a Publisher Agreement with us, that could allow publishing to DTRPG and it would establish what percentage would need to be sent to Smiteworks, how frequently and how sales would need to be reported. We only allow this for a very small number of publishers.

We have no plans to spin up a bunch of new Publisher Agreements at this time.

I know you probably missed the context of most of this - but this is a yes or no question.

Do you have a publisher agreement with Grim Press.

Contextually - that has been the entire DTRPG conversation to date.

[This is the source of my frustration from being told different things constantly.]

[LordEntrails]

Edit: ninja'd by Doug himself.

So as you seem to be taking the "I know approach" let me ask you for some clarity. I was told if you had a publishing agreement this was all good. I was told that if you had a license agreement it was all good.

I was told that some parties do have this and can publish to DriveThuRPG.

Now, again I'm getting clarity from people reading other peoples responses and documents and not getting any direct input from those who understand it all. So again. I feel - and I could be wrong - that I'm once again getting misinformation based on partial understandings of the situation. I mean I can be wrong for sure.

If nothing else, I've proven I don't know squat.

As I said multiple times in this thread already. If I go - it will be Grim Press doing the going.

Patience Grasshopper

This is what you need to know from the person who matters, the President of SmiteWorks;

...
As far as I know, the DMsGuild agreement is terminated and restrictions from that agreement are no longer in force. The bad part is that SmiteWorks as a general rule does not allow anyone to publish content for Fantasy Grounds without either A) a Publisher Agreement or B) DMsGuild agreement. Both of these remain for .mod style content, but .ext files are not typically something we offered in A and they are no longer supported in B. This is likely going to require another solution.

It's all a bit sudden and we haven't had a chance to fully react and plan for a suitable solution. ...

When asked if extensions could be published elsewhere (like DriveThruRPG);

Not without a Publisher Agreement in place between SmiteWorks and the author of the extension.
...
We've diverted a resource over to the Forge project and will probably know more in a week about how long it will take to get that ready.

I know you want a solution. But the decisions are not being made by the people you or I have access to at OBS or WotC. Emailing with OBS Support really is just muddying the waters for yourself, because they can not give you an informed decision until they are told what that decision is. And that will only happen when among others, Doug reaches agreements with OBS and WotC. Have faith that as soon as Doug reaches agreement or arrives at a solution and the decision can be made public, he will make it public on the forums here.

All of the splashing we do down here lets those folks know the issue is important, but it doesn't help them work through the issues they have to work through.

Don't forget, not only do you need to worry about any license agreement with OBS when you publish an extension (or whatever publisher you may use), you also need to comply with the Fantasy Grounds license. Specifically this part right here (emphasis mine);

5. AUTHORIZED CONTENT DISTRIBUTION. You agree not to use the SOFTWARE in any way to create unauthorized content for distribution to other users. This includes any content which violates any copyrights of any persons or for which you own the copyright but you have not obtained a LICENSE AGREEMENT with SMITEWORKS for authorized content distribution. You may create and distribute content in a strictly non-commercial capacity without a LICENSE AGREEMENT as if it were authorized content as long as that content does not violate any copyrights of any person.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...s_faq#faq_eula

[SilentRuin]

Patience Grasshopper

This is what you need to know from the person who matters, the President of SmiteWorks;



When asked if extensions could be published elsewhere (like DriveThruRPG);



I know you want a solution. But the decisions are not being made by the people you or I have access to at OBS or WotC. Emailing with OBS Support really is just muddying the waters for yourself, because they can not give you an informed decision until they are told what that decision is. And that will only happen when among others, Doug reaches agreements with OBS and WotC. Have faith that as soon as Doug reaches agreement or arrives at a solution and the decision can be made public, he will make it public on the forums here.

All of the splashing we do down here lets those folks know the issue is important, but it doesn't help them work through the issues they have to work through.

Don't forget, not only do you need to worry about any license agreement with OBS when you publish an extension (or whatever publisher you may use), you also need to comply with the Fantasy Grounds license. Specifically this part right here (emphasis mine);

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...s_faq#faq_eula

If it turns out Grim Press has a publishing agreement and I've been fire hosed with misinformation from the get go - having mentioned even at the very beginning that they would be doing this for me if it happened - I will be...

Less than pleased.

But really - its the forums. I don't know what I was thinking that context could be preserved more than a few posts (sigh)

And who knows? As I said - so many people telling me different stories out of context - even I am no longer sure what I've been told and by whom.

[LordEntrails]

*lol*
Yes, if Grim Press has an agreement and it allows them to publish for sub-contractors (or however you are classified with them), then I would think you would be fine. But that's something Grim Press should be dealing with. Isn't that why you let them publish your stuff? To avoid having to deal with this ?

[ddavison]

I know you probably missed the context of most of this - but this is a yes or no question.

Do you have a publisher agreement with Grim Press.

Contextually - that has been the entire DTRPG conversation to date.

If you aren't the publisher, then you should let your publisher deal with where it is allowed to be published. It's not appropriate for us to discuss agreements we have with any publishers publicly and answering yes or no questions for someone who doesn't have access to the contract in its entirety is a recipe for further miscommunication. If you have a separate agreement with Grim Press, you should reach out to them to see if their agreement allows them to publish on DTRPG. As a general rule, only a few of our contracts allow for that and they explicitly state it if they do.