I'm sorry if this or a similar question has been posted already, I'm not the best at sifting through sorts on forum boards...
Since everything from the old Dungeon is held by WotC, I'm assuming that there aren't going to be direct translations of certain elements from previous Adventure Paths, however none of my gaming group has picked up any products as of yet dealing with Golarion as a campaign world. Are there analogs to some of the people, places and organizations that are not copyright protected?
For instance, the Vanderboren family was quite obviously intended to be a sort of soap-opera family, do they still exist just under a different name? How about Cauldron, the Isle of Dread and whatever the heck the starting city from Savage Tides (just can't recall the name...)? I could have sworn I saw a reference in something I picked up recently to a coastal city with a large arch that sounded suspiciously like that city. Ditto with organizations such as the Seekers or the whatchacallit High Crafters or whatever they're called (boy do I wish I had some of those books in front of me...)
Sorry again if this is old material that's been covered and thanks for any help :)
Director of Brand Strategy
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There are not really direct analogues to specific places, at least not that we've seen. That said, it would be fairly easy to add Sasserine, Cauldron, or the Vanderborens to Golarion and set the Savage Tide Adventure Path within the setting. There's no Isle of Dread, but there is a vast expanse of unmapped ocean, so you could easily place it there. Golarion is a standard enough setting that you can include just about whatever you want in it from other sources. I'd suggest checking out the Campaign Setting hardcover to get a feel for the world and where things might best fit and you can always ask for suggestions for specific things on the boards. In fact, I think there are a number of threads about porting the Dungeon APs into the world already.
Which leads me directly into another question: Is the setting HC "officially" a Pathfinder product? As in, is there crunch existing those books that is balanced with the Pathfinder rules? I think that's the main sticking point with our group as to whether we wanted to drop the money on it...
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Director of Brand Strategy
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No, it was developed as a 3.5 product. It came out at the same time as the Beta softcover, so there would have been no way for Paizo to know what form the final PFRPG rules might take. That said, it would require minimum to no conversion to make it work, with the exception of a few feats or alternate class features that are now standard parts of the game. There may be a reprint in the future with revised rules and expanded content, but nothing of that sort has been announced yet, and until it is, the current book is still the most thorough source of information on the setting as a whole.
Good to know, thanks for the prompt response :)
Note that the book is mostly flavour, anyway.
Everything that ever appeared in the pages of Dungeon and Dragon is owned by Hasbro/WOTC. just like anything not covered by the SRD. Given that they'd most likely reserve the material for thier own use, I don't see them licensing much of it to Paizo.
They also don't like more 3e/OGL material being made, so the chances of them giving anyone the leave to use that stuff to make 3e material are even slimmer.
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Everything that ever appeared in the pages of Dungeon and Dragon is owned by Hasbro/WOTC. just like anything not covered by the SRD. Given that they'd most likely reserve the material for thier own use, I don't see them licensing much of it to Paizo.They also don't like more 3e/OGL material being made, so the chances of them giving anyone the leave to use that stuff to make 3e material are even slimmer.
I'm not sure which sort of contracts existed between the module authors and Paizo and WoTC. However, I doubt WoTC could alter the contents of anything published without explicit permission from the authors, i.e. they could not (to my understanding) rewrite 'The Whispering Cairn' for 4E if Erik didn't agree to it.
Unless copyright laws and contracts work very differently in US than in Europe.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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They also don't like more 3e/OGL material being made, so the chances of them giving anyone the leave to use that stuff to make 3e material are even slimmer.I'm not sure which sort of contracts existed between the module authors and Paizo and WoTC. However, I doubt WoTC could alter the contents of anything published without explicit permission from the authors, i.e. they could not (to my understanding) rewrite 'The Whispering Cairn' for 4E if Erik didn't agree to it.
Chances are high it was "work for hire" which grants the copyright to the hiring company. That would mean they could edit it to whatever edition they wanted without getting anyone's permission. It's their intellectual property. It's no different than if Paizo reprinted The Skinsaw Murders after converting it to PFRPG. They might ask Richard Pett to contribute, but it would be a nice gesture on their part and not required by law.
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Creative Director
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I'm not sure which sort of contracts existed between the module authors and Paizo and WoTC. However, I doubt WoTC could alter the contents of anything published without explicit permission from the authors, i.e. they could not (to my understanding) rewrite 'The Whispering Cairn' for 4E if Erik didn't agree to it.
Unless copyright laws and contracts work very differently in US than in Europe.
WotC owns all of that content. Lock, stock, and barrel. That's actually normal, though, for shared-world stuff. They could absolutely rewrite "The Whispering Cairn" for 4E without Erik's permission. They could do it without telling him at all. Copyright isn't an issue; when a writer creates/writes something for WotC (magazines included) they, as a general rule, sell ALL rights to what they create.
And before anyone cries foul... this is the way it's always been, and it's kind of the way it HAS to be when you're working on a shared world product, be it D&D or Star Wars or Conan or Golarion stuff; yup, we buy all rights to what our authors do for us as well.
Now... if someone has a SUPER POPULAR product that someone wrote as work for hire, it'd normally be common sense to involve that writer in a remake or sequel or something like that. Or at the very least let the writer know what's up with his work. But when you do work for hire, the person or company buying that work is under no obligation to do something nice like that.
Did WotC tell you about Scales of War in advance?
Since that's supposedly a sequel to Red Hand of Doom, which was the best adventure published by WotC for 3.5.
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Creative Director
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Did WotC tell you about Scales of War in advance?
Since that's supposedly a sequel to Red Hand of Doom, which was the best adventure published by WotC for 3.5.
They did not. I didn't learn that it was a "sequel" to Red Hand of Doom until after the first adventure was online, in fact.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Everything that ever appeared in the pages of Dungeon and Dragon is owned by Hasbro/WOTC. just like anything not covered by the SRD. Given that they'd most likely reserve the material for thier own use, I don't see them licensing much of it to Paizo.They also don't like more 3e/OGL material being made, so the chances of them giving anyone the leave to use that stuff to make 3e material are even slimmer.I'm not sure which sort of contracts existed between the module authors and Paizo and WoTC. However, I doubt WoTC could alter the contents of anything published without explicit permission from the authors, i.e. they could not (to my understanding) rewrite 'The Whispering Cairn' for 4E if Erik didn't agree to it.
Unless copyright laws and contracts work very differently in US than in Europe.
They absolutely could do this if they wanted to, and they wouldn't even need to tell me about it.
ALL work done for Wizards of the Coast, whether for the magazines or their own books, is done on a work-for-hire basis for all rights, which means they own it lock, stock, and barrel.
It's theirs to do with (or, more realistically, not do with) as they please.
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Everything that ever appeared in the pages of Dungeon and Dragon is owned by Hasbro/WOTC. just like anything not covered by the SRD. Given that they'd most likely reserve the material for thier own use, I don't see them licensing much of it to Paizo.They also don't like more 3e/OGL material being made, so the chances of them giving anyone the leave to use that stuff to make 3e material are even slimmer.I'm not sure which sort of contracts existed between the module authors and Paizo and WoTC. However, I doubt WoTC could alter the contents of anything published without explicit permission from the authors, i.e. they could not (to my understanding) rewrite 'The Whispering Cairn' for 4E if Erik didn't agree to it.
Unless copyright laws and contracts work very differently in US than in Europe.
They absolutely could do this if they wanted to, and they wouldn't even need to tell me about it.
ALL work done for Wizards of the Coast, whether for the magazines or their own books, is done on a work-for-hire basis for all rights, which means they own it lock, stock, and barrel.
It's theirs to do with (or, more realistically, not do with) as they please.
EDIT: Rezdave is correct; for some reason I was thinking of this in terms of an actual publishing contract between an author and a publisher. And, of course, I didn't initially think of the different tradition in legislation (based on the privilegio) prevalent here in Europe.
I *do* know of a couple of cases in which the owner of a trademarked product *had* to withdraw the slightly altered version when the original author (who had been hired to design the product) felt his rights had been violated. These happened in my country, though, and our national copyright legislation varies a bit even from EU legislation.
In general copyright issues -- especially on the international level -- are a bit of a mess (just take a look at what Google is doing; and they'll likely get their way in the end, but likely only after paying the biggest international publishers some sort of agreeable compensation. Individual authors not keen on suing will likely end up with nothing.)
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Asgetrion, what is google doing?
Well, shortly put, they've been scanning copyrighted out-of-print works (in English) for Google Books, regardless of whether said works were still in print in other languages. The only way to prevent this was to register online and notify Google (by a certain date) that you did not grant them your permission; most international publishers and authors were not even *aware* of this (and not even notified of said policy by Google -- at least outside the US). For example, I remember reading that French publishers are absolutely furious over this, and although less successful authors and small publishers might actually benefit from this (i.e. it could be seen as free advertisement), they won't likely get actual financial compensation from Google without sueing (which would be impossible, because a long legal battle against Google would certainly bankrupt them).
To my knowledge, several US and international courts have already voiced their opinions and rulings, and both Google and biggest publishers -- plus the wealthiest authors and the various organizations concerned -- are preparing for battle by "mobilizing" their lawyers.
At this point it's hard to say how it will turn out, and how this "mess" will affect copyright and IP laws on national and international levels. I personally think some sort of settlement will be reached outside the courts; Google will likely end up paying the biggest publishers and successful authors a monthly/annual/per book sort of compensation.
I'm also very interested in hearing WIPO's (World Intellectual Property Organization) take on this issue.
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Creative Director
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Aren't the books Google's scanning also orphan works? As in, books technically still in copyright but without anyone around to claim the copyright? I'm not sure they're actually scanning books still in copyright that the copyright holders are actively protecting...
For what it's worth, I think that what Google's doing is the right thing; it's better to preserve works like this than let them vanish. What they DO with the scans, though... that's the sketchy part.
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Aren't the books Google's scanning also orphan works? As in, books technically still in copyright but without anyone around to claim the copyright? I'm not sure they're actually scanning books still in copyright that the copyright holders are actively protecting...
For what it's worth, I think that what Google's doing is the right thing; it's better to preserve works like this than let them vanish. What they DO with the scans, though... that's the sketchy part.
Yes, they are scanning orphan works; it may be that Google relies on such works not being actively protected by the organizations representing copyright holders, and in some countries they might even fall under public domain (I'm not a legal expert, and the Scandinavian countries do not have public domain in the same seense many other European countries do).
Around here, these organizations are *very* energetic and usually make sure that even orphan works (and even if the author is truly anonymous and the current holder of the copyright is unknown; in which case the copyright will last 70 years from the publication date of the first printing) will be protected. It also remains to be seen how the POD system (and only digitally published works) will be affected by all this, because Google *has* scanned such works (for example, the indie RPG 'Conspiracy of Shadows' is there; not the whole book, but by my estimation enough of the mechanics that you could actually play it). Also, if publishers such as Paizo does not reprint their works but continue to sell them as PDFs, would that still count as being "in print"?
As a librarian, I agree in principle; if they primarily scanned copyright free material and older material that *is* actually in danger of being lost due to fragile condition, it would be all good, because museums, archives and libraries worldwide simply do not have enough funds to digitize everything (in our own national library we have tens of thousands of works in danger of being lost, and citizens can support the digitizing venture financially by selecting which works from the national collection should be preserved with the 'Save a Book' campaign -- sadly, we cannot save them all, and far too many works *will* be lost).
As far as I know, everyone is now in 'wait-and-see' mode.
Well, shortly put, they've been scanning copyrighted out-of-print works (in English) for Google Books, regardless of whether said works were still in print in other languages. The only way to prevent this was to register online and notify Google (by a certain date) that you did not grant them your permission; most international publishers and authors were not even *aware* of this (and not even notified of said policy by Google -- at least outside the US).
Great! If this takes off, I'll do something similar.
I'll list houses on a website (hidden behind a link called "gay sheep fetish porn") and if people don't complain, I just take them.
My second stage will be the same, but with countries.