Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ClockworkGolem 11-30-05, 07:11 PM	There is a movement afoot to appeal to the RPGA to change its policy of retiring LGH adventures after tournament use. The goal would be for the RPGA to allow the retired adventures to be made available for home campaigns and general use for the community at large, provided the necessary concessions are made to protect copyrighted content and author's rights. If you would like to be a part of this movement, I encourage you to sign the online petition at http://alternat.celeonet.fr/lg/ Also, please spread the word. Don
King Kashue 11-30-05, 08:37 PM	Uh...The current policy makes the content the property of the author and the author can republish it once the copyrighted material is removed... You've made a petition to establish a policy that already exists...
nony2klerch 11-30-05, 09:40 PM	Unless he's talking about the first three years of the campaign.
kenobi65 11-30-05, 09:45 PM	Unless he's talking about the first three years of the campaign. Which would, as I understand it, require renegotiating contracts with every affected author, as the contracts in force at that time provided for *no* republication rights. Don't hold your breath...
King Kashue 11-30-05, 10:03 PM	Unless he's talking about the first three years of the campaign. He's saying the RPGA should change it's policy regarding "retiring" modules...Those in the process of being retired (at the moment, year 4 mods would fall into the category)...
Simpi 12-01-05, 03:15 AM	He's saying the RPGA should change it's policy regarding "retiring" modules...Those in the process of being retired (at the moment, year 4 mods would fall into the category)... And the possibility of publishing those adventures without authors having to remove all Greyhawk content/material/references from them as is required currently, if they need to be re-published. S.H, the guy from Naerie
King Kashue 12-01-05, 03:51 AM	And the possibility of publishing those adventures without authors having to remove all Greyhawk content/material/references from them as is required currently, if they need to be re-published. S.H, the guy from Naerie That's not part of his statement...He specifically mentioned taking the necessary steps to maintain copyrights and such (which is already done by removing it)... "Our purpose is to learn how we might help change the future policy or work well with the current one so that GH fans and Wizards customers may enjoy LGH modules after they retire and are no longer encumbered by contractual constraints. " Well, there's always going to be some kind of contract to protect WotC's copyrighted material and the author's intellectual property...But other than that, the material can be distributed... He's lobbying to change a policy that was changed 2 years ago...
ClockworkGolem 12-01-05, 06:45 PM	Actually, we are aware of the existing contractual arrangement. However, we are exploring ways in which the retired content could be made available to interested fans. As there is currently no centralized distribution agency, other than the RPGA, each individual author would have to be tracked down and petitioned by some Greyhawk fanatic to revise his/her work and then submit it to some online repository for others to download. Since the RPGA has already contacted these authors, it would be an easy thing to negotiate terms on how to do this revision/submission process for future scenario submissions to LGH. Plus, if the RPGA is in control of the repository, it is more likely that people will know about it and be able to use it. This is merely a first step in communicating interest in this idea to the people that have a say (and seeing if there is sufficient interest to warrant any effort). No details have been worked out yet. Don
King Kashue 12-01-05, 09:41 PM	As there is currently no centralized distribution agency, other than the RPGA, each individual author would have to be tracked down and petitioned by some Greyhawk fanatic to revise his/her work and then submit it to some online repository for others to download. Since the RPGA has already contacted these authors, it would be an easy thing to negotiate terms on how to do this revision/submission process for future scenario submissions to LGH. Plus, if the RPGA is in control of the repository, it is more likely that people will know about it and be able to use it. Few things in contract law are "easy"...Especially since what you're talking about is having the authors give up control of their intellectual property...I can't imagine that authors, having gotten this would now want to give it up... Good luck trying though...
ClockworkGolem 12-02-05, 03:26 PM	I'm wary that this thread will degenerate into a debate on copyrights, but I want to address the issue of why someone might be willing to "give up" their intellectual property. Consider that most of the authors that submitted material to the LGH campaign were not paid, and did so soley because they enjoy the game and wanted to contribute or possibly because they want to build a name for themselves in the gaming industry. Similarly, consider the motivation behind people who contribute to open source projects (or other open content projects). They do so without financial compensation because they believe in the project and they enjoy the sense of contribution to something larger than themselves. The authors may wish to keep their material and attempt to publish it someday. That's great. However, if they have no such aspirations and simply seek a wider exposure than they might have acheived with tournament play, this could assist in that endeavor. Also, I don't see why an author couldn't include a statement in the submitted work that indicated that the work was not to be reproduced for distribution or sale without the author's consent. Don
King Kashue 12-02-05, 05:18 PM	I'm just noting that when the contracts were changed, they gave authors much more control over their content...What you're suggesting would reverse that and take control away...To me, that seems unlikely to happen...
tylerthehobo 12-03-05, 09:29 PM	Aren't there other things with the RPGA that we could address that might be more worthwhile than spinning cycles on this? There are modules out there to play - if there weren't I'd see the need for investing time (And what will be capital to cover legal fees etc. to get this off the ground) in this. Frankly, I'd really rather see more of a grass roots movement to get the RPGA to be more pro-active and involved in the gaming community, rather than trying to appease a small segment of that community. Just my $0.02.
Dark_T_Zeratul 12-07-05, 02:36 AM	Interestingly enough, I saw this thread when I came to make a post seeing if there was any way to obtain retired mods for home games. Guess that answers that question... Well, my next one would be this: does anyone know of any way to contact the author of a specific mod and personally request it from him?
Dark_T_Zeratul 12-17-05, 07:20 AM	Well, it's easier than I thought to find contact info for a mod's author (Google worked just fine), and he was more than helpful in getting me the mod for my home game. It may not be the ideal situation, but unless something changes dramatically it may be the only one available.