Hey folks guess what, we are headed for the bad old days of DnD suing every site listing new content, every VTT, everything that they don't like, or can't steal.
Yeah, hello I've been there already, and I couldn't buy a Birthright campaign box because of it.
So let me break it down for you: Repealing (or attempting to) the OGL 1.0(a). Oh dear god where do I start... That's a **** around and find out scenario, and somewhere along the line a OGL 1.0(a) defense fund GoFundMe page is going to more than compete with rawr Big Corpo Badass lawyers. Then there's the whole anit-trust concern that, well: good luck against the FTC and USDoJ... Allowing publiciations to continue to be published under OGL 1.0(a) means that subsequent add-ons can be published under that license. Or not, **** around, and... Every 3pp that tells you to **** off and keeps publishings 5e content ? **** around and... Just trying to police every post about gameplay, every piece of fan content on the web, **** around and...
Yeah, we've been through that before and that's literally how WotC bought DnD at a bargain bin price in the first place.
I happened to be in the right place at the right time once and met quite a few of the guys that ran Marvel back before all the movies came out, I was attending a presentation and we all were staying at the same hotel and shared a van to and from the event center every morning for a weekend and they liked talking, a LOT.
I remember asking them what they thought about fanart and comic book conventions, because so many people made art of Batman or Thor or whoever and sold it, and technically that's a copyright violation - but I remember that all of them were so quick to insist that there was no way in hell it was bad for the industry for two big reasons.
1. it was free advertising, hands down. The more fanartists out there drawing THEIR character, the more people see THEIR character, and the more visible and commonplace THEIR character [and IP] is, and that's a good thing - and they don't even have to spend any money to make it happen!
2. those artists could one day become real artists for Marvel, and if they forced them to stop they'd have culled 'future talent' because - and I remember this specifically - a lot of the point of being a Batman artist or whoever is that it can take time, years even, to draw that character consistently and well enough that it looks right pretty much all the time. When you move an artist to another book and they're drawing characters and costumes they're unfamiliar with, there's a whole acclimation period and the art looks awkward and bad for the first few issues because they need to get their bearings. If they've been drawing fanart of that character for the last 10 years however, it's much more likely that they'll be interested in doing a good job because they're fans of that character, and also they'll have had the practice already and those awkward books won't have to happen.
Both are solid business points that clearly have been lost over time, because I've seen Marvel and DC working to squeeze the grip of Copyright and IP ever since the movies became their real mealticket, and I think it's a shame.
The harder you try to hold on to something the more it slips through your fingers, Ming the Merciless.
TLDR: I too foresee a tightening of the IP controls, and it never ends well. Just smothers the community out until there's nothing left but 'official' content, and that's never enough for a real fandom community to live on, especially not in a ttrpg space where there isn't a unified story or characters to follow. I suspect the death will be faster because there's no Batman for people to get emotionally hung up on, like... Are you really that attached to Beholders? I know I'm not.
And find out.
Hey folks guess what, we are headed for the bad old days of DnD suing every site listing new content, every VTT, everything that they don't like, or can't steal.
Yeah, hello I've been there already, and I couldn't buy a Birthright campaign box because of it.
So let me break it down for you:
Repealing (or attempting to) the OGL 1.0(a). Oh dear god where do I start... That's a **** around and find out scenario, and somewhere along the line a OGL 1.0(a) defense fund GoFundMe page is going to more than compete with rawr Big Corpo Badass lawyers. Then there's the whole anit-trust concern that, well: good luck against the FTC and USDoJ...
Allowing publiciations to continue to be published under OGL 1.0(a) means that subsequent add-ons can be published under that license. Or not, **** around, and...
Every 3pp that tells you to **** off and keeps publishings 5e content ? **** around and...
Just trying to police every post about gameplay, every piece of fan content on the web, **** around and...
Yeah, we've been through that before and that's literally how WotC bought DnD at a bargain bin price in the first place.
^ This guy gets it. Now they wanna charge us a 30 dollar sub fee on top of it. Chris Cao has got to go!
I happened to be in the right place at the right time once and met quite a few of the guys that ran Marvel back before all the movies came out, I was attending a presentation and we all were staying at the same hotel and shared a van to and from the event center every morning for a weekend and they liked talking, a LOT.
I remember asking them what they thought about fanart and comic book conventions, because so many people made art of Batman or Thor or whoever and sold it, and technically that's a copyright violation - but I remember that all of them were so quick to insist that there was no way in hell it was bad for the industry for two big reasons.
1. it was free advertising, hands down. The more fanartists out there drawing THEIR character, the more people see THEIR character, and the more visible and commonplace THEIR character [and IP] is, and that's a good thing - and they don't even have to spend any money to make it happen!
2. those artists could one day become real artists for Marvel, and if they forced them to stop they'd have culled 'future talent' because - and I remember this specifically - a lot of the point of being a Batman artist or whoever is that it can take time, years even, to draw that character consistently and well enough that it looks right pretty much all the time. When you move an artist to another book and they're drawing characters and costumes they're unfamiliar with, there's a whole acclimation period and the art looks awkward and bad for the first few issues because they need to get their bearings. If they've been drawing fanart of that character for the last 10 years however, it's much more likely that they'll be interested in doing a good job because they're fans of that character, and also they'll have had the practice already and those awkward books won't have to happen.
Both are solid business points that clearly have been lost over time, because I've seen Marvel and DC working to squeeze the grip of Copyright and IP ever since the movies became their real mealticket, and I think it's a shame.
The harder you try to hold on to something the more it slips through your fingers, Ming the Merciless.
TLDR: I too foresee a tightening of the IP controls, and it never ends well. Just smothers the community out until there's nothing left but 'official' content, and that's never enough for a real fandom community to live on, especially not in a ttrpg space where there isn't a unified story or characters to follow. I suspect the death will be faster because there's no Batman for people to get emotionally hung up on, like... Are you really that attached to Beholders? I know I'm not.
Life=Pain
Pain=Suffering
Suffering=Despair
Despair=Death