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Post by Mrs. Policewoman on Jul 23, 2015 20:28:23 GMT -5
I recently mistook something someone said in a different thread as meaning that there was a MURPG wiki. I was quickly corrected, but this got me thinking: "Why shouldn't there be one?" I'd love to start working on a MURPG wiki, and I'm sure plenty of other people would find it quite useful, but the issue I've come across is that I'm not actually sure how legal it would be. I've searched online in some small capacity, but I can't seem to find anything, so I was wondering if anyone here would be able to clarify on the legality of creating a RPG wiki for me.
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Post by justice009 on Jul 23, 2015 20:31:36 GMT -5
That would be sweet, but i do not know about the whole law of the internet copyright thing .
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Post by Brainstem on Jul 24, 2015 14:10:50 GMT -5
Well, even if Marvel's abandoned the game, they still own the copyrights to it and could seek action against you for making a page that publishes their content. Not that they would. But they could.
Also, better question: why? Not to necessarily shoot down the idea, because it's good in theory, but it doesn't seem very practical. The game has three books that are all very easy to navigate, so there isn't a whole lot of volume that could be easily condensed into one source (as opposed to, say, Pathfinder's SRD). The rules tend not to reference themselves, so the linked-up articles a Wiki allows aren't really necessary.
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Post by Neros on Jul 24, 2015 15:01:04 GMT -5
I seem to rememeber that there was made a 2.0 Wiki.. But I may be wrong.. But I agree with Brainstem about publishing issues and the need for a wiki with the small amount of material there is. However, if it was legal, I see no reason to why it shoulnd't be done
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Post by Ricochet on Jul 24, 2015 15:15:48 GMT -5
Well, if you look at all the D&D retroclones you'll find that they all claim you can't get copyright on rules. You can only get copyright on the way something is presented. So all you need to do is change the words, and maybe clear up the text a little bit and add some houserules. What you shouldn't do is present it as the Marvel Universe RPG or mention any character that is owned by Marvel.
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Post by Brainstem on Jul 24, 2015 21:01:34 GMT -5
Well, if you look at all the D&D retroclones you'll find that they all claim you can't get copyright on rules. You can only get copyright on the way something is presented. So all you need to do is change the words, and maybe clear up the text a little bit and add some houserules. What you shouldn't do is present it as the Marvel Universe RPG or mention any character that is owned by Marvel. No, you can definitely copyright the rules. They're not just ideas; they're a pretty concrete creative thing. Which retroclones are you talking about? My guess is they get away with whatever they do because either A) Hasbro doesn't care enough to sue them; or B) What they're using falls under the very liberal OGD associated with D&D (like general d20 rules).
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Post by Ricochet on Jul 25, 2015 12:35:28 GMT -5
Well, It's not A, because WotC send a cease and desist letter to anyone that doesn't use the OGL. B is likely, because Retrogames do use the OGL. I tried looking for the claim, but I couldn't find it.
I did find a faserip retroclone though. I'm pretty sure you can still download the original Marvel Superheroes RPG from one site, so I'm a little puzzled on why.
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Post by roxolid on Jul 26, 2015 10:43:19 GMT -5
I believe it's an American ruling that rules can't be copyrighted, only the expression of them. So, rewrite the rules completely, tear the intellectual property from it (art, names, examples, powers specific to certain characters and so on) and make it sufficiently different that a court of law can see clear differences and therefore no intent to infringe on copyright. Or something like that.
The OGL by WOTC (and the various other agreements like Creative Commons and so on) allow more or less the same thing, but give you the ability to use everything they list as being fair game. For the OGL System Reference Document (D&D 3e) that's more or less the full game available to copy for your own purposes so long as you put the OGL agreement in the back. Whatever you do don't mention the D&D name anywhere in there though, cause that will incur a Cease and Desist if it comes to the notice of lawyers. Take a look at the retro clones. I don't think any of them (off the top of my head) mention Dungeons and Dragons, compatibility with it or much else, but all are clearly D&D of various versions (generally Basic D&D but some AD&D versions) with the art stripped out and serials filed off.
Whether Marvel would even care about someone sticking a non profit fan work up on the internet is another matter. The original Marvel (FASERIP) game has been available free on the internet for years. It's still there, so... *shrug* maybe worth a go.
Now if it were a Games Workshop IP, that'd be a different matter. They are quick to dish out Cease and Desists as several people/websites have found. Someone is making a clone of Warhammer Fantasy RPG at the moment (Zweihander) and it'd be interesting to see what happens when it comes out...
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