Can I Post My Item On My Personal Site?

[lair-master]

This has been discussed before, but can I post my item on my personal website? I don't wish to profit from it, but I am proud of the work I did and would like to share it with others. As it's their property, is there a way to give proper attribution to Paizo?

[Tripp Elliott]

Post it in the critique thread and link to your post from your site maybe?

[lair-master]

Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan wrote:

Post it in the critique thread and link to your post from your site maybe?

Thanks for the advice! That's most likely what I will do if I'm unable to post the item on the site itself.

[Garrick Williams]

I think it's fine to post it, but you cannot monetize it unless you alter the item sufficiently enough.

[Phelps Tosscobble]

Reading through the rules, it doesn't seem that you cannot use the item, the wording just sounds like you are giving paizo permission to use it, and cannot sue them or claim any money they make off it.

If paizo took sole property rights to thousands of contest entries, and didn't let you do anything else with your item, that wouldn't sit well with me...Especially when looking at the origins of Pathfinder/P3.

Open licence benefits all.

[Chris Shaeffer]

The open gaming license covers mechanics, but not original content (minotaurs and Greece are common domain, but beholders and Faerun are proprietary to WotC).

As far as I've gathered, the main reason for the ownership clause is to avoid lawsuits originating from the participants if Paizo happens to release something similar in the future.

They almost certainly wouldn't pursue legal action if you posted your item, let alone notice it. But it is a risk, however small. Your decision on how to handle it.

[Andrew Marlowe]

If you don't want to publish a link to the Critique thread you could also post it right to your profile here on Paizo and post a link from your home site to there.

I think you could probably also safely use the community use policy to re-post it to your own website.

[Garrett Guillotte]

Phelps Tosscobble wrote:

Reading through the rules, it doesn't seem that you cannot use the item, the wording just sounds like you are giving paizo permission to use it, and cannot sue them or claim any money they make off it.

If paizo took sole property rights to thousands of contest entries, and didn't let you do anything else with your item, that wouldn't sit well with me...Especially when looking at the origins of Pathfinder/P3.

The submission agreement (which unfortunately only appeared on the submission page, which is no longer accessible) grants Paizo ownership over your submission. There's no Open Game License or Community Use Policy allowances; Paizo owns it, and to legally use it elsewhere without modification you must have Paizo's permission.

As Chris said, it's intended to protect Paizo from lawsuits, and it applies to all rounds, including the module pitch.

EDIT:

Specifically:

Avatar-1, Dec 12, 2013 wrote:

If Paizo only has those terms to protect itself, does you guys care if the writer publishes it themselves though?

There should only be a conflict of interest if Paizo ever possibly intends to use it, which from I understand, isn't the case.

So the copyright stays with Paizo, but Paizo doesn't care if the writer develops of their own accord?

Sean K Reynolds, Dec 12, 2013 wrote:

That puts Paizo on a weird shaky ground where people are using Paizo-owned material without permission, yet Paizo isn't stopping them from doing so. Thousands of lawyers just woke up chortling and cracking their knuckles.

Barring a newer official opinion, and since posting something to a website likely counts as publishing, I think this still stands.

[Garrett Guillotte]

Andrew Marlowe wrote:

I think you could probably also safely use the community use policy to re-post it to your own website.

The CUP has a list of approved sources and RPG Superstar submissions aren't on it. I asked about this last year as I'd laid out a book collecting the critique thread posts without realizing there was no legal way to distribute even that much.

[Andrew Marlowe]

Garrett Guillotte wrote:

Andrew Marlowe wrote:

I think you could probably also safely use the community use policy to re-post it to your own website.

The CUP has a list of approved sources and RPG Superstar submissions aren't on it. I asked about this last year as I'd laid out a book collecting the critique thread posts without realizing there was no legal way to distribute even that much.

Good to know. Honestly it was only a guess on my part...I use my profile here to post mine.

[lair-master]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I don't want to publish my entry, unless posting it on my Tumblr blog is tantamount to publication. Because that's all I want to do. If there's some text I can include to properly credit Paizo as its owner, great.