Community Use Policy and Online Games

[Tangaroa]

Alright, I had a lengthy, well reasoned post but it got eaten by the website and I didn't save it, so the abbreviate version:

A) People who play online copy materials (stats, maps, and 'read-aloud' text) and use it as source files for their VTT (Virtual Table Top) software when they are DM'ing games.

These text, maps, and character stats greatly enhances online play, and are solely in the hands of the GM. In many ways, it is not dissimilar to the copying that many people do of maps that they then use in their home.

B) However, because making said source files for online play takes a long time each adventure, these same people will e-mail copies to other people who intend to run the same adventure. This happens a lot in Pathfinder Society play, where there are a lot of adventures to run and maps are rarely reused.
Notes:
- This is point-to-point e-mailing, not hosting/uploading
- Both parties have legally purchased copies of the PDF adventures.
- Only GM's, not players, have stored copies of images, texts, or
character stats.

Is A and/or B allowed?

Is it possible to get some sort of language caveat put into the CU policy to clarify this, if it is allowed?

If neither are allowed, is it possible to purchase or be provided maps of areas through Paizo (electronic versions of game-master maps, essentially)?

...or should I be looking into expensive mapping software, practicing my art skills, or delving into the WOTC map-a-week archves?

[NeoFax]

For Pathfinder Society play, I would like for the Rules guide to specifically state like in the 4E RPGA guide that as long as the intent of the game is satisfied, the game table is legal. By this I mean that if I change a map of a campsite with my own map that I acquire that has a Creative Commons license or Sharealike license that the game is legal. I am not talking changing the names of characters or re-writing the scenario. This would allow people to pass around files that contain only "OGL" or open licensed material and still be able to make a legal table by just adding in the small bits and pieces like handouts, read aloud texts and such.

[Vic Wertz]

If I understand A) correctly, that all comes down to personal use; no problems there.

As for B), well, the vast majority of our maps are not available for distribution, even under the Community Use Policy. There's a good reason for this, and it is tied to points touched on here, but we're not ready to say much more about that; it'll probably be a while before we are.

[Tangaroa]

Well, I guess I find the reasons why odd, but I can certainly abide by that decision.

Vic Wertz wrote:

If I understand A) correctly, that all comes down to personal use; no problems there.

As for B), well, the vast majority of our maps are not available for distribution, even under the Community Use Policy. There's a good reason for this, and it is tied to points touched on here, but we're not ready to say much more about that; it'll probably be a while before we are.

[Enlight_Bystand]

Tangaroa wrote:

Well, I guess I find the reasons why odd, but I can certainly abide by that decision.

Vic Wertz wrote:

If I understand A) correctly, that all comes down to personal use; no problems there.

As for B), well, the vast majority of our maps are not available for distribution, even under the Community Use Policy. There's a good reason for this, and it is tied to points touched on here, but we're not ready to say much more about that; it'll probably be a while before we are.

Reading through the lines of what Vic is saying here, I suspect that Paizo are working with someone on doing what you want to do themselves. I believe I've seen somewhere that Lone Wolf have a virtual tabletop style program in development, so it might be related to that...

Or it could be something completely different.

[Tangaroa]

Oh, well that's nice. I am not familiar with Lone Wolf... I've mostly been using the rptools.net platform, maptools, which has a pretty strong community following.