2. Quick double check: A 4e webcomic is legal, right? Because if not, I've got a bit of a problem...
:embarrass I already started one...
Link here.
The Comic thing
(which looks more or less like a blatant ripoff from "The Order of the Stick")
COULD count as parodie, has in principle nothing todo with a license and more with copyright
Please visit www.wizards.com/d20 for the FAQ.
That FAQ could really stand to be updated, however. ;)
That FAQ could really stand to be updated, however. ;)
Working on it.
As long as you live in the U.S. you are protected under Fair Use, which allows you to use parts of any license, regardless of what they are, for the purpose of parody and/or review.
A fancomic (a comic that exists to tell a noncanon story that is within or connected to an existing license's canon) by its very nature is parody. So your comic is protected. It is not however, protected from looking like a blatant ripoff of OotS. >,>;;
Nor will it protect you if you began copy+pasting game material verbatim from the book or started claiming certain product identity aspects of D&D were your own. (Example, you could have a beholder character named Charles. Charles is your character, but you could never claim that he's not a derivite character or that beholders were a race you owned).
You should, however, have some sort of disclaimer/statement of intent for your comic. An excellent example of a effective and disclaimer is the one that Dave Anez used (the comic has since ended its seven-year run) with his megaman sprite-based fancomic Bob and George.
The GSL, regardless of what it says, cannot override the protections for parody and review granted by the fair use act.
If you agree to GSL you can certainly give up these rights. But for a web comic there shouldn't really be any reason to agree to GSL to begin with.
Also, if my memory serves, me, the January date was for anyone who did not purchase that... thing that gave you the GSL in advance.
Anyway, thanks for the answers.
The problem is, the GSL might as well be written in greek for all the sense I'm able to make out of it. After checking the FAQ, I THINK the stuff would be qualified under fansite, but the fansite license isn't out yet. So, should I just post it in the houserules forum, or what?
Also, I should probably explain that I want to tie the 4e restorations and homebrew into the comic, would that change anything?
If you agree to GSL you can certainly give up these rights. But for a web comic there shouldn't really be any reason to agree to GSL to begin with.
Thats exactly what I was getting at. A comic author would be a fool to give up those protections by agreeing with the GSL. Now mind you, I do not think its as evil as some armchair lawyers around here try to brow beat, but it is limiting and a comic like OotS could not exist if Rick had agreed to a GSL.
Sir_Dwar, October/Gencon is for everyone. As I understand it, because the GSL was delayed the companies that did buy-in were made reparations and the start date was changed.
And for further reference, if you want people who like 4E to take you seriously, stop calling it 4.0, its insulting. As it stands official word says there will be no 4.5, so contrary to what many of the naysayers say, there is no reason to assume there will be one. Call it 4E/4th.
(Fixed it)
And for further reference, if you want people who like 4E to take you seriously, stop calling it 4.0, its insulting. As it stands official word says there will be no 4.5, so contrary to what many of the naysayers say, there is no reason to assume there will be one. Call it 4E/4th.
I think people are being way hypersensitive to this. I'm not sure everyone who refers to it was 4.0 even thinks twice about it or intends it as an insult.
The rest of your post I agree with.
I think people are being way hypersensitive to this. I'm not sure everyone who refers to it was 4.0 even thinks twice about it or intends it as an insult.
The rest of your post I agree with.
It doesn't bother me as much as I imply, but I do believe that calling 4E, 4.0 is a sort of passive agressive insult for some people. I know for a lot of others its just habbit. I just would rather see 4E/4E/4th or even $E than 4.0 >,>;;
EDIT: Looked over some threads and didn't understand enough of them to get the gist of the thread.
A rule of thumb that I've come up with, based upon what Scott Rouse has been saying for a while is "Do not make anything from the D&D4E core books obsolete, and you should be fine".
Would reprinting certain abilities (Half-orcs have dual heritage, and I gave Gnomes fey heritage) be out? What about saying gnomes gain an ability mentioned in the phb (prestidigitation)
So...
Would reprinting certain abilities (Half-orcs have dual heritage, and I gave Gnomes fey heritage) be out? What about saying gnomes gain an ability mentioned in the phb (prestidigitation)
Referencing materials in the books cannot be stopped.
Summarizing materials from the books cannot be stopped.
Reprinting materials from the books can be stopped, and its just bad form to try.
The rule of thumb is "never make the books obsolete" that applies to everything made to support D&D4E, from fansites to GSL product. As long as you follow that rule you should never run afoul of WotC's chained hellhounds... erm I mean lawyers.
Saying "I recommend allowing half-orcs to have dual heritage, but otherwise treating them identical to orcs as described on page 278 of the monster manual" is well within reason. Even rewriting an editted profile should not be a problem as long as you do not reprint any profile from the book verbatim.
Reprinting materials from the books can be stopped, and its just bad form to try.
Wouldn't reprinting materials from the books violate copyright law? IANAL, but that seems to be pretty blatant. I happen to know the licensing manager and she just might frown upon and GSLicensee who violates copyright law.
Just saying.
Wouldn't reprinting materials from the books violate copyright law? IANAL, but that seems to be pretty blatant. I happen to know the licensing manager and she just might frown upon and GSLicensee who violates copyright law.
Just saying.
If you look again at the excerpt you quoted, he said reprinting CAN be stopped
So, referencing the material IS ok? (So i can just say, "Half-Orcs have the dual-heritage racial feature. See page XX of the player's handbook?")
If you look again at the excerpt you quoted, he said reprinting CAN be stopped
I think she means paraphrasing and summarizing would be considered a violation of copyright law as well... And I THINK she may be right as far as something like game mechanics go... could be wrong, but I'm just going to reference the page numbers.
I think she means paraphrasing and summarizing would be considered a violation of copyright law as well... And I THINK she may be right as far as something like game mechanics go... could be wrong, but I'm just going to reference the page numbers.
Game rules themselves can't be protected by copyright. Beyond that, you're getting into a gray area. The GSL disallows referencing page numbers, but you're outside GSL and not otherwise doing something that infringes IP, you should be ok.
If you look again at the excerpt you quoted, he said reprinting CAN be stopped
Maybe I misunderstood the part about it being bad form to try. If you meant it was bad form to try to copyright, then I take back my comment...I thought you meant it was bad form to try to stop someone from reprinting. My bad!