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  1. #1

    Want a FG module of Dragonlance DL1 Dragons of Despair?

    How would you like a Fantasy Grounds module of the very first Dragonlance module: DL1 Dragons of Flame? I make FG conversions on the DMsGuild, but in order to sell them I can’t have any copyrighted material and it has to be in Faerûn. But recently, I talked with an expert and learned that I can give you a version I made that has everything and is in Krynn. How you may ask? You have to buy three PDFs from DMsGuild. They are:

    1. My FG module
    https://www.dmsguild.com/product/249105
    2. The original module
    https://www.dmsguild.com/product/168...t_epoch=0&it=1
    3. Dragonlance 3.5 Campaign Book
    https://www.dmsguild.com/product/285...t_epoch=0&it=1

    If you send me a screenshot of your DMsGuild library showing you own these, I can legally send you a fully working (and amazingly beautiful) copy of DL1 Dragons of Flame with all sorts of added materials like an explanation of all the gods, a breakdown of all the languages I added to the module, new class, all the races were turned into DL versions, and much more!
    How is this legal? Let’s say you buy those three PDFs. Then I go to your house and make the module for you. That’s legal and so is this since it’s the same thing in essence. I’m just skipping the part where I come to your house.
    Just sharing the love. So if you’re interested, send me a private message!

  2. #2
    Trenloe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vodkard View Post
    ... but in order to sell them I can’t have any copyrighted material and it has to be in Faerûn.
    Quote Originally Posted by Vodkard View Post
    If you send me a screenshot of your DMsGuild library showing you own these, I can legally send you a fully working (and amazingly beautiful) copy of DL1 Dragons of Flame with all sorts of added materials like an explanation of all the gods, a breakdown of all the languages I added to the module, new class, all the races were turned into DL versions, and much more!
    Does this module you're providing contain copyright material? If so, you can't share that legally - it doesn't matter if someone owns the original material.

    I'm guessing that this "expert" you talked to said that if someone owned the original material, then you can give them that material in another form? Otherwise, you wouldn't be asking people to buy it.

    The first page of the DL1 PDF states: "This module is produced under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR Inc." You can't reproduce this content and give it to anyone else without breaking copyright - it doesn't matter if they own the original product, and it also doesn't matter if you aren't charging for it.

    Assuming the FG module you offer contains copyright protected material: What you do privately is up to you - i.e. going to someone's house and making the material for them. That would still break copyright laws, but we would be unaware of that and you're not publicly offering that service here. Advertising on these forums for people to PM you to get this FG module is not permissible - assuming it contains copyright material.
    Private Messages: My inbox is forever filling up with PMs. Please don't send me PMs unless they are actually private/personal messages. General FG questions should be asked in the forums - don't be afraid, the FG community don't bite and you're giving everyone the chance to respond and learn!

  3. #3
    Ah! Gotcha. I was totally mislead then. What a shame. Thanks though for the heads up! Never mind folks, haha

  4. #4
    Trenloe's Avatar
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    It's great that you were looking for ways to provide this material legally. But, as you say, it looks like you were misled.
    Private Messages: My inbox is forever filling up with PMs. Please don't send me PMs unless they are actually private/personal messages. General FG questions should be asked in the forums - don't be afraid, the FG community don't bite and you're giving everyone the chance to respond and learn!

  5. #5

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    It is a pity that we do not have any Dragonlance adventures fo FG yet. I played a lot of Drangonlance in the 90's and I'm eager to DM the classics to the new generartion of VT players. However I don't have te time to convert everything to FG. Well, in fact I'm doing it (bought all AD&D books for FG), but at a very, very slow pace.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by lbkoerich View Post
    It is a pity that we do not have any Dragonlance adventures fo FG yet. I played a lot of Drangonlance in the 90's and I'm eager to DM the classics to the new generartion of VT players. However I don't have te time to convert everything to FG. Well, in fact I'm doing it (bought all AD&D books for FG), but at a very, very slow pace.
    I know this is old post but information is not all exactly correct in this form so here you go.

    copy right law TSR does not exsit any more and copy right only last x number of years so unless company re liinced the copy right it turns into fair use.

    wizards of cost does not i belive own rights to dragonlance it self orignaly was created by marget and tracy hickmen but anyways that being side you can always take the DND gold box and convert them into fantsy ground campaigns or use the game world and make it 5e and then make your own storys in that world setting that would be fair use also.

    al of old TSR gold box games are free and even sold on GOG by people who made them to work for windows 10 general rule of thumb is copyright protection lasts for the life of the author for DND anything that is 1st and 2nd is free use and dragonlance was orginaly made in 2nd edition Gary Gygax died so that stuff he made is fair use, TSR is dead so anything they have is pretty much fair use, wizards bought some of stuff but as for dragonlance that world was created by tracy hickman and margaret weis, I have talked to margaret weis my self through her email there still writting dragonlance books and expanding the world out side of wizards of cost. as of right now margaret Weis owns has the rights for the IP still currently even thought wizards picked up rights they refuse to do anything with them and left them in the hands of margaret so really i belive you would just have to send her email and be like hay can I write a campaig story for dragonlance for fantasy grounds.


    intresting history dragonlance orginated with 1st edition DND for most part in WI lake geneave and margaret Weis still lives here in my home state and her headquarters for her dragonlance game settings is out of Margaret Weis Productions https://margaretweis.com/

    she also has the sole rights to publish Dragonlance Chronicles so and all chars so forth with in.

    as for copyright orginal authors always maintain rights till death.

    and as stated wizards has no intrest in the IP also they refuse to USE ip even thought they blantly steal from the IP example dragonborone are draconian but they had to change name and stats and how they where created same with there goddess Tamara they can not say that they get it form that and have to by law say its diff god so forth but anyone knows back story of these things know where they got it from.

    ather reason there is 4th 5th and so forth editions for wizards becuase they can not creat 1st 2nd or 3rd edition stuff. those IP are free use or use stuff to sell they have to import from those the ideas then make alot of changes to be able to call it there own and sell it.

    when comes to IPs when copy right falls off even thought new owners usally get rights to make new content that is diff but uses same IP but they the old IP material always belongs to old author made it if that authro is dead then that ip kind goes into limbo in way old part does becuase it turns into free use public domain in way if it is sold for monies, then the kids of the orginal author make monie off of it.. for example music rights. author dies or is around you can free use and make a new style of same music but you cant recreat key for key old records and re sell it use orignal voice or what not with out paying family members who are still alive. if no one is alive then u pay no one if you have IP you can creat a new song based off of the lyrics make few changes and then sell it but you can not may a 1 for 1 copy and sell it it would have to be giving free. if you made monie you have to pay fees to family of author


    so answear is you can make a dragonlance campaign setting based in the time line before wizards of cost got hold of it and you can cant use any of authros orginal storys or anything wiht out there okay, but you can use the old information that is public domain now and create your own 5e is owned by wizards so if you convert it you would not premission to use there rules but if they allow any one to convert anything then you dont beucase then its just expressed that you can.. you would not be able to make dollar off of it thought.

    also if you released it free work you soloy did becomes auto copyrighted to you meaning someone elese could not use what you did with out asking you also nether of you could make monie on stuff that was orginaly used but if for example they liked your story or char that you wrote about you could request monie for use of that part that you created.

    IP and copy rights can get very confusing even large companys stuff wrong for example wingcommand IP is in perment limbo due to copy rights issue that company bought IP cant use any of game world due to authors rights to the copyright IP

    that would be EA vs chris roberts vs rex maidment vs frank savage all own parts of the IP in diff ways making it so no one can do anything with it at all.

    same with the PC game Fear IP thats in limbo due to same issues.
    Last edited by midn8t; January 17th, 2021 at 22:55.

  7. #7
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    This is incorrect on so many levels but we will just address the basic premise on which you started.

    As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.
    https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/f...l%2070%20years.

  8. #8
    that is what people go by, but its not law and it also dosnt cover fair usage and or been held legal in court, sorry didnt know you where on bar like I my self used to be and also worked on legal cases involving copy right info with in the USA, also marget wise does have the IP for dragonlance and for putting out new info on it and dnd 1 and 2nd is free usage which is why it can be given away and is along wiht all the DND gold box edition which are now considered abandon ware.

    be ether way you can use copy right materials as along as you do not make monie off of it period.

    it is written right into all copyrights. its called fair usage its law it also states in copyright that copyrights can shall not be heavily enforced what usally always ends up happen is all party end up agree on a split of profits if there is profits made or agreement of how the items will be used and or what partys will be able to use what items.

    and yes marget wise has the rights to the IP of dragonlance and wizards of cost has rights to 5E so yes if he was to make monie off of a campaign setting he would need to ask permission from both wizzards for 5E and from marget on writting a story for the campaign

    no he would not have to ask any premission to turn gold box edition game form TSR into 5e if he was not selling it. yes he could take gold box edition rewrite it to run on windows and sell it on GOG which has already been done by a none wizards of cost company and yes you can download most of all the TSR games off as of abandon ware for free.


    most important part of your qoute is this part "As a general rule", "meaning this is not the law." for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.

    2nd part of that is that DND was "not created after 1978" it was before 1978 bettween 1972

    so he can easily make his own around that time period campign setting as for dragonlance that is copyrighted she have to aprove it but anything that is 1st edition which was used for dragonlance originally is fair usage and old gold box games IP where owned by SSI not TSR


    anyways here the law that DND and some of the SSI falls under

    How long does a copyright last for works published or registered before 1992 This is where copyright law gets tricky. Before 1978 and 1992, works had to be published or registered to be eligible for copyright protection, and then renewed in the 28th year after publication for another 28 years. Without a renewal, the work would enter the public domain. This requirement was abolished in 1992 at which case they also changed copy right law but added "fair use," the law allows the use of portions of copyrighted work without permission from the owner. Fair use is a defense to copyright infringement. This means that an unauthorized use of copyrighted material is excusable if it falls under the principle of fair us

    which allow you some ability to use copyright stuff with out making monies on it.


    what so what would be fair use well pretty much what i said before but ill breack it down

    you can use copyright material as along as it equals any of these things or to some extent all of these things.

    1. only small portion of orginal material is used - meaning you make changes to it
    2. new work is critquied or for education use to learn
    3. benefit to user is predomiantly other than commercial meaning you dont make monie
    4. commercial value of thee orginal is not disminished meaning you are not hurting sales of that product you are using copy right stuff from
    5. new work is predominantly original product of the user

    that is the law of fair use and give you right to use copyright matirel with out asking permission. -> that is the law in USA anyways


    copy right infringements are almost impossible to take to court and majority of time they are dealt with out of court and sides come to agreement, majority of time scare tatics are used.

    something elese people need to understand is that every country in world has there own copyright laws and rules thats why that above thing gives you rule of thumb but sense dnd was in USA and in WI you can go by USA law.
    Last edited by midn8t; January 18th, 2021 at 10:42.

  9. #9
    Trenloe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by midn8t View Post
    be ether way you can use copy right materials as along as you do not make monie off of it period.
    As SmiteWorks is a registered US company, they need to adhere to US laws. In the USA copyright applies no matter if money exchanges hands or not. You cannot distribute copyright material for free, or otherwise, without the consent of the copyright holder.

    You go on to talk about fair use, and your final bullet points can be applied to some material. But you can't make a blanket statement (using "period" implies that what you say is 100% applicable no matter what) saying that copyright doesn't apply if someone distributes that material for free. That is simply incorrect. Why do we see many C&D orders issued when people use copyright material on free YouTube Videos? Because you can't redistribute, reformat, etc. copyright protected material for free. What you are basically saying is that piracy is legal. Err, no.
    Private Messages: My inbox is forever filling up with PMs. Please don't send me PMs unless they are actually private/personal messages. General FG questions should be asked in the forums - don't be afraid, the FG community don't bite and you're giving everyone the chance to respond and learn!

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by midn8t View Post
    ... sorry didnt know you where on bar like I my self used to be and also worked on legal cases involving copy right info with in the USA ...
    Sorry, you may have been these things but I seriously doubt it. Your posts are classic examples of what to look for in scam/phishing communications. Incorrect grammar, spelling and capitalization being the main things. Just one example: if you truly did work on copyright legal cases, I'd think you'd be able to reliably use "copyright" rather than use "copy right" interchangeably within your post. Plus, the inaccuracies in what you're posting. So, unless I see any serious evidence - backed up by verifiable sources, I doubt what you're claiming is true. And I completely disagree with your claims about copyright (see my post above).
    Last edited by Trenloe; January 18th, 2021 at 11:47.
    Private Messages: My inbox is forever filling up with PMs. Please don't send me PMs unless they are actually private/personal messages. General FG questions should be asked in the forums - don't be afraid, the FG community don't bite and you're giving everyone the chance to respond and learn!

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