Legal & Licensing Paizo Copyright Issues at Obsidian Portal? - EN ...

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5th July 2011, 10:25 PM ? #1 (permalink) modified his status Registered User ? Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: AB, CA Posts: 6,740 Paizo Copyright Issues at Obsidian Portal? So, it being July, I'm a little late checking on June's Campaign of the Month at Obsidian Portal. It sounded pretty cool, so thought I should check it out. A little late for sure, it's no longer open to the public. Apparently, Paizo issued a C&D to the campaign owner, due to what he describes as tiny thumbnail images of item cards being handed out to his players (check the comments section at the bottom of the interview). Seriously? If that is all there is to the offending material, tiny, unusable images, then this seems pretty silly to me. Sounds to me to along the lines of the good ol' days at TSR, or White Wolf's current draconian measures regarding use of their IP. I like the guys and gals at Paizo, they do good work. But this, I don't like, just seems very player-unfriendly. ? 5th July 2011, 10:32 PM ? #2 (permalink) Number 6 Registered User ? Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 42,823 Paizo is a company first and that's one of the reasons they are a successful company. I don't see anything wrong with them protecting their properties. Comments ?? ? +1 ?? ? As a copyright holder, I agree. ?? ? Agreed, the anti- ?? ? +2 ? 5th July 2011, 11:11 PM ? #10 (permalink) has no status. Registered User ? Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Elfrida, AZ Posts: 7,327 I don't know. I am far more aware of copyright law than most people, but if its someones artwork, or own written word, you do not use it in any way that distributes it in a public manner. Period. Its been a long time since I read over Paizo's usage rules, but I am pretty sure there are no exceptions in there either. I remember the package having very specific things to use, not an allowance to use anything. Either way, its cool to distribute such things among your gaming group, but not for general consumption on the internet. Just because it was to small for YOU to use, does not mean someone else isn't able to enlarge it to a usable size. The right software can do some pretty amazing things. Comments ?? ? Treebore speaks with wisdom __________________ It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules, which is important. NEVER hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks room lawyer to force quotations from the rule book upon you, IF it goes against the obvious intent of the game. As you hew the line with respect to conformity to major systems and uniformity of play in general, also be certain the game is mastered by you and not by your players. Within the broad parameters give in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Volumes, YOU are creator and final arbiter. By ordering things as they should be, the game as a WHOLE first, your CAMPAIGN next, and your participants thereafter, you will be playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons as it was meant to be. May you find as much pleasure in so doing as the rest of us do. -1E DMG, page 230 ? 5th July 2011, 11:30 PM ? #15 (permalink) always headed for rune Registered User ? Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 683 Quote: I'm not taking a side, but I think it's apparent that he was, in fact, distributing images of Paizo's cards, for the purposes for which the cards were intended, "tiny" or not. It is clearly infringing. Is this Fair Use? Good question. No, it probably would *not* fall under fair use. On that same measure, it is true that if a company doesn't defend its IP it can potentially lose said IP. However, a company can also broadly license usage of its IP or declare that it will not prosecute certain violations without jeopardizing its IP either. Paizo could lay a blanket statement down that says, "We authorize the use of our IP in publication so long as that usage does not infringe on commercial uses of said IP." With that, they wouldn't need to send C&Ds, would have a protected IP, and could still send C&D to people that actually abuse the IP in a way that is detrimental to the company. (Now, if they deemed this was actually detrimental to the company, then more power to them--they have the right to defend their IP however they choose). Comments ?? ? Thanks for including the note on IP protection & ownership. ?

Source: http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/308291-paizo-copyright-issues-obsidian-portal.html

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