Hello everybody,
i am planing to distribute free fan-made adventures on my homepage.
For that project i would like to ask what materials are allowed to use in my own adventures.
For example: am i allowed to use town names and names of the gods for the adventures or are they under copyright protection from paizo?
Thanks for the infos and excuse my bad english :)
You're not allowed to use anything from Golarion, basically. No town names, no people, no gods, no proper nouns at all. Golarion is Paizo's intellectual property and is not Open Game License material. The Pathfinder RPG system itself is Open Game License, which means you can make your adventures using PRPG; you just can't set them in Golarion or use any Golarion entities in them.
bump
Zurai's got it. Under U.S. copyright law, you cannot explicitly set your adventure in Golarion without permission; keep it generic.
At most, you could perhaps get away with a sidebar that references certain Golarion books and suggests settings/situations in Golarion where the locations and events of your adventure would fit well. Keep these as compatibility suggestions rather than actually using Golarion in your work itself.
Thanks for your answers.
Then i have to make the adventures generic :)
Actually, you may be able to utilize the Community Use Policy for referencing intellectual property if its restrictions match your needs. Read through it and see if it fits with what you are planning for your site. The sidebar suggestion should work with this, and keeping the adventures generic in general might increase your user base.
Chief Technical Officer
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Actually, you may be able to utilize the Community Use Policy for referencing intellectual property if its restrictions match your needs. Read through it and see if it fits with what you are planning for your site. The sidebar suggestion should work with this, and keeping the adventures generic in general might increase your user base.
Yep—if you're a non-commercial user, the Community Use Policy will tell you what you can and can't use.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Yeah, it sounds more like fan-fiction laws than actual copyright laws. Your not selling it for profit, so you should be fine. Reference Golarion all you want, as long as you don't make a buck off it.
The law does not work the way you think. There are no copyright laws specifically protecting fan fiction, or allowing blanket non-profit use of other people's intellectual property.
That's why we have a Community Use Policy—so nobody has to worry about what's legal and what's not when it comes to our IP. Just follow the Policy, and you'll be fine.
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Yeah, it sounds more like fan-fiction laws than actual copyright laws. Your not selling it for profit, so you should be fine. Reference Golarion all you want, as long as you don't make a buck off it.fan-fiction laws? Never heard of those in my IP classes.
That's because there aren't any fan fiction laws. I mean, you could try to enforce laws against them, but good luck on the internet.
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That's because there aren't any fan fiction laws. I mean, you could try to enforce laws against them, but good luck on the internet.Yeah, it sounds more like fan-fiction laws than actual copyright laws. Your not selling it for profit, so you should be fine. Reference Golarion all you want, as long as you don't make a buck off it.fan-fiction laws? Never heard of those in my IP classes.
Now there's the argument concerning derivative works and such... but...
and yeah, that's the fun part... enforcement.|
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That's because there aren't any fan fiction laws. I mean, you could try to enforce laws against them, but good luck on the internet.Yeah, it sounds more like fan-fiction laws than actual copyright laws. Your not selling it for profit, so you should be fine. Reference Golarion all you want, as long as you don't make a buck off it.fan-fiction laws? Never heard of those in my IP classes.Now there's the argument concerning derivative works and such... but...
and yeah, that's the fun part... enforcement.
Exactly, it's like trying to shut down p2p networking systems-you might be able to stop one, but a million knock-offs will rise up in response. A better way to "control" derivative works like fan-fic and adventures is to allow an option on the site where authors can post approved free adventures and works of fiction-no one is getting paid, Paizo owns what's on the site, and everyone is happy.
And yes, this has its own set of pitfalls, but encouraging community based projects give Paizo more customers in the long run. People will still want to buy official modules and adventure paths, so that won't be a problem. And by screening the adventures that get submitted, Paizo could find a gem and offer to publish it officially.
Better to offer it on their website and draw visitors here than have them on another site. But I'm just saying...
Or, they could offer a pretty generous community use policy, and you could use it. But I'm just saying...
The Community Use policy pretty much spells out what you can and can not use. You must however include the standard OGL at the end of each document.
Actually, for community use you cite the CUP. You only have to use the OGL when using OGC...
And again we see the biggest Fallacy regarding copyright. Expectation of profit has absolutely nothing to do with restrictions of copyright law.
I mostly agree, but I wouldn't say "absolutely nothing". Commerciality makes a difference in evaluating a Fair Use defense.
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Yeah, it sounds more like fan-fiction laws than actual copyright laws. Your not selling it for profit, so you should be fine. Reference Golarion all you want, as long as you don't make a buck off it.And again we see the biggest Fallacy regarding copyright. Expectation of profit has absolutely nothing to do with restrictions of copyright law. There are no "fan-fiction" provisions in copyright law which was why Viacom at one point considered pursuing legal action to shutdown all Star Trek websites. (they chose not to do so for more practical reasons)
The Community Use policy pretty much spells out what you can and can not use. You must however include the standard OGL at the end of each document.
These actually have nothing to do with copyright law at all either. It has to do with TRADEMARK law. Entirely separate beast.
For example, everything your WRITE for your fan-based project is still YOUR copyright. The Golarion setting is still trademarked by Paizo, but the story, or adventure or whatever it is you write is YOUR copyright.
The CUP is great. Just follow it, and you will be fine.
For example, everything your WRITE for your fan-based project is still YOUR copyright. The Golarion setting is still trademarked by Paizo, but the story, or adventure or whatever it is you write is YOUR copyright.
Yes, but your Golarion-based work would be derivative, so while Paizo couldn't take your work (since you have a copyright to it) without your permission, they have a copyright to the core you derived from, so you can't release it without permission from them.
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For example, everything your WRITE for your fan-based project is still YOUR copyright. The Golarion setting is still trademarked by Paizo, but the story, or adventure or whatever it is you write is YOUR copyright.Yes, but your Golarion-based work would be derivative, so while Paizo couldn't take your work (since you have a copyright to it) without your permission, they have a copyright to the core you derived from, so you can't release it without permission from them.
They have a copyright to the core yes, but also Trademarked. I cannot "copy" their work. I can reference their work, be inspired by their work, and develop my own ideas based upon their work. But I may not copy word for word their work. I cannot use the word Golarion, not because it is copyrighted (can't copyright a word) but because it is Trademarked (you CAN Trademark a word- for instance Pink is trademarked by Owen Corning insulation!) For example in a literary piece for college I cannot copy from another source without giving proper credit, and then the copy MUST be noticeable, and not be claimed as my own and limited in size (in other words I cannot copy someone else's paper in its entirety) and appropriate.
In this case, it is still the Trademark that trumps everything. That is why the CUP is awesome because it says "Here is our trademark. We are protecting our mark, but still allowing you to use our mark."
Thank you all for your help. I think now i can start the project.