Updates on Lawsuits?

[Thelandrin]

Play by post forum games are very common and birmail is an automated turn processor. Neither violates Sierra' limited copyright as there is no copyright on ideas. The real problem with running a PBP game here on BR.net is that everything would then need to be done via PM and the boards only store a limited number of PMs!

[Mirviriam]

Thelandrin

Not completely true - it'd be relatively simple to create an interface for the domain actions to automatically submit an email to DM. The system itself might take a few months - then someone to enter all the different spells, abilities, npcs, magic items as they need them.

I was going to work on a birthright sideproject, but shelved it in favor of a java project for battletech - as they were developing a tactical risk like map/production system to record results of board, online mechwarrior4, chat room game matches between players.

The main reason was that I didn't want to spend time on something which's IP might be yanked...WoTC makes alot of money off their card games & they keep their sales refreshing by coming up with new spells & cards that could not be used in conjunction with the items from the previous 2-3 year period. Then they fuel the rampage of buying but holding tournaments to make it so people without large gaming circles have to play with current 'decks'. To a large extent it could be that they don't understand how much time goes into players using different rule set versus the 15 minute card games they originally made their $$ on...

I was kind of curious if the IP sharing that happened when Birthright was shutdown, was a nod to the developers, a PR stunt saying, "look WotC is a great company", or if they were hoping people work out a useful system that can eventually be taken for free back into publication?

What's the deal with this Amazon Affiliate thing too? How close does it tread to the making money issue?

[Arjan]

Thelandrin
What's the deal with this Amazon Affiliate thing too? How close does it tread to the making money issue?

none at all.. we are not making money from publishing and selling birthright and or other material on this site.
in fact we are supporting wotc sales through amazon.. and getting VERY little revenue to support the forum license etc.. so people dont have to donate

as a matter of fact.. no one actually buys through BRnet.. so no revenue gained at all..

[Vicente]

The main reason was that I didn't want to spend time on something which's IP might be yanked...

I've been doing the same, simply I don't call it Birthright and problem solved. You can do all the domain/bloodline/actions system without a single problem, it's not so original after all. A problem would be using their setting name, kingdom names, NPCs,... and making money in the process, but if you steer clear of those, you should be safe.

[Mirviriam]

Cool thanks Arjan~!

I've decided to go thru with my advanced pbem site idea & use a name scrambler if I have too

I won't be ready for content for another couple of months anyways as I'm moving the battletech site currently & expect to be trouble shooting for at least 3 weeks on that!

Vincente, you got a link to your thing? We should talk shop about how you're handling spells and such

[Dcolby]

Lets face it, if you pay for access to these PDF's only to have access denied at a later date it would feel rather like the electronic equiv of Wotc going door to door confiscating your 3.5 books in order to force you to buy
4e.

Which all talk of piracy aside is what it seems Wotc is pushing for ultimately.

4e will sell or flounder on its own merits, not by drying up the supply of electronic intellectual properties from previous editions. Embracing the use old properties may even increase the sale of current ones as interest in conversion grows.

[Vicente]

Lets face it, if you pay for access to these PDF's only to have access denied at a later date it would feel rather like the electronic equiv of Wotc going door to door confiscating your 3.5 books in order to force you to buy
4e.

So, I asume you weren't buying online PDFs in places like RPGNow because they limit the number of downloads you can do of your products, right?

[Dcolby]

I think RPGnow offers (5?) downloads or some such like it. But if thats the contract you entered into then you made the purchase with that understanding and you are cut off or out prior you may feel short changed.

I only use pdf's when I can't find the actual tome I am seeking at a reasonable price so this has not affected me.

However if I bought an item with the understanding I would be able to download it 3, 4, 5 times etc.. and somthing happened to my files, harddrive, back ups, housefire, angry ex girlfriend, curious children and I went back looking for the product I paid for then I would feel rather put out.

[SirRobin]

Well its been quite some time but I think I lost mine by having them on an old hardrive that I never bothered to copy to cd or something like that. I was surprised to see that I still had downloads left and was even more surprised to find they were not available because Wizards had changed their minds on the whole pdf thing and were willing to sue to try and make everyone else change their minds too.

Honestly, I don't have any interest in their newer products so whatever online system they come up with, and you know they will, it won't actually affect me.

I was just caught off guard by how silly the lawsuit seems to be given the economic realities of today.

Still though, they own it so they can do whatever they want to with it. I just think they are shooting themselves in the foot.

[Sorontar]

I had a quick look today and found some more details released by Wizards about D&D4e fan sites. I haven't read them in depth but I have put references on the wiki at http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/ind..._and_D.26D_4ed .

I don't know whether this changes anyone's ideas about making a 4eBRCS but it certainly seems that they are happy for people to still work on D&D3.5 with the OGL and any other existing agreements.

Sorontar