Does the new IP Policy affect the Yak?
- Thread starter Petitioner's City
- Start date
If they somehow strong-arm Yak to shutdown the gang management software, I wouldn't be able to run a campaign. I have tried using shared spreadsheets to track gang ratings and battles in the past, and it just doesn't work. I suspect it would have a significant downturn on player retention to take away these tools. GW would be killing their game that is only limping along due to the community and this website. Nobody is going to manually input all the characteristics and prices if the tools get gutted to just a shell of what they are. (That's just my gut feeling, I can't verify the validity of these statements)
But that's what the game is designed to be. You can't design a game that relies on management tools and not make those tools for players. I'm sure there are many players out there that write everything down on cards or use spreadsheets but I don't know how much time it takes, how much bookkeeping it is.
I'm one of them. I've dabbled with the tools and think they are quite nice but I'm just old fashioned and more accustomed to writing things out. It doesn't seem to be much of a hassle to me but perhaps I'm an outlier. I've pointed new players towards them and the do seem to appreciate them.
So here it comes down to how you do that! In the EU, the European Court of Justice (EuGH) has decided that linking or embedding content is generally permissible if the content is publicly available. - But that doesn't apply, for example, to content behind a pay barrier, such as the future Warhammer +!
Copies of files are not allowed! That would be, for example, if you saved GW's pictures, texts or videos on your pc or in your album and linked or shared them from there.
I think it was simpler when it was just the classic roster, but modern munda there are so many parts (and so many stats). I made a spreadsheet for my own house campaign, which is deep, modelled after Malo's gang manager - but it is still only a shadow of the flexibility and skill of what he has done here. But I found once I started tinkering with stats at large, I needed an insulated system.
Well that's a problem here. There's a plugin I use that takes any image embedded in a post and downloads it as an attachment. This was done years ago to ensure images in posts are preserved in case the source site takes them down.
I'm reasonably unworried by this development - the Tribe is undoubtedly beneficial to new Necromunda (despite the sump) and is pretty much the go-to resource for anyone playing who doesn't want/doesn't want their players to keep manual records.
GW coming after us is possible, but the tribe existed quite happily even during the 000's "dark times" where GW was suing and C&Ding people left, right and centre.
As for NCE - was the LRB it's based on not legally released as an open source document? IIRC only the art in it is not clear for anyone to use in a non profit capacity.
I personally think this is aimed squarely at YouTubers and the like who can make significant sums from GW related content, quite liberally using their imagery etc, in direct competition with GWs Twitch channels they would rather you were paying for instead.
GW coming after us is possible, but the tribe existed quite happily even during the 000's "dark times" where GW was suing and C&Ding people left, right and centre.
As for NCE - was the LRB it's based on not legally released as an open source document? IIRC only the art in it is not clear for anyone to use in a non profit capacity.
I personally think this is aimed squarely at YouTubers and the like who can make significant sums from GW related content, quite liberally using their imagery etc, in direct competition with GWs Twitch channels they would rather you were paying for instead.
Well perhaps I should say instead that I wouldn't want to manage a campaign as Arbitrator without these tools. Sure it's possible, but I have lots of real life logistics to worry about in organizing things, and trying to get people to keep a shared spreadsheet up to date is not something I'd like to return to.
I ran an ORB campaign with a typewriter….
I actually went and searched for names of GW solicitors and associated legal companies after that thread developed, the paranoia is real!
Shows what you know! It was an electric typewriter!
otherwise, yeah. Pretty much.
otherwise, yeah. Pretty much.
That's the thing. Their policy page has always been a mess of wishful thinking dressed up as IP law. You can't claim "anything from the X universe" as a trade mark, FFS. It has to be specific.
I've spent ages trying to find UK case law to clarify whether weapon stats and the like are protected under copyright and to date I've not found a definitive answer. What that tells me is that they don't know either and are hoping that if they say it in a scary way they won't need to defend it in court, should it come up. Game mechanics are definitively not protected and stats would fall under those, I think, even if the wording of the rules themselves are protected.
Which is also why GCE is a full reimplementation of Gorkamorka. None of it infringes on their copyright and the rules are totally rewritten. Specifically they're written based on how the rules work, not on changing a few words.
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