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I put this in the AP general discussion thread group because it mostly pertains to people running APs.
Some of us contribute quite a bit of material to be shared with other GMs (maps, PCs and all that) but we are constantly skirting the copyright rules as to whether we can include images from a map from our pdfs. This skirting is commonly done in the following way:
1) GM posts material to share
2) People love it
3) Paizo moderators remove offending links because their content is verboten
4) GM says they'll email material to interested parties
5) Threads pile up with email_address at domain dot com requests
6) Paizo apparently looks the other way
What if there was a way for people to upload offending material and have them linked to whatever pdf purchases you have in your account?
i.e. Say I own the Rise of the Runelords AP and want to make battle tokens using the artwork in Burnt Offerings (Or campaign cartographer files or whatever). I cut and paste and make a pdf and upload it to the hypothetical server. Then, it gets flagged as being associated with the associated catalogue number and anyone who owns access to that catalogue number could see what I uploaded in something like "My Custom User Creations".
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What if there was a way for people to upload offending material and have them linked to whatever pdf purchases you have in your account?
While I love the concept, I'm not sure how feasible this would be. Barring any copyright issues (as for Paizo to do this, they would need to green-light the concept of the use of copyright material being utilized for fan created material to be distributed through their system), any items uploaded would still need to be reviewed by Paizo folks (to be certain the material was not objectionable) and that requires someone to put eyes on the uploaded files prior to the files becoming available.
With the product schedule being what it is (as well as the nature of the publishing business being what it is) the time required by personnel to review additional material would be the main hurdle that would need to be overcome.
Additionally, there could be an issue with user material being uploaded that may undercut existing commercial material Paizo has available. Again, this would require a review of material before it is made available to the end user.
Still, if it could be made to work, I think it would be a great benefit for those who have purchased products through Paizo to get access to the material created by others who enjoy playing and expanding on existing content.
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Paizo is already reviewing material when they screen posts in the forums so the difference may be smaller than you are thinking. I'm not sure what commercial material you are referring to because the map folio are reproductions of what's in our paper and digital copies already and the other third party stuff (battle tokens) is third party and unique anyway with its own value.
In terms of copyright, users are allowed to do whatever they want for personal, non-commercial use. From what I understand, I am allowed to edit digital maps and make monster chits and make NPC handout cards and reprint them for my home and PbP games to my heart's content. This kind of stuff goes on all the time and is blind eye-sanctioned on this site because Paizo allows the email-it-to-me-too threads to continue.
It's a pretty small step from there to allowing owners of the material to see what others have done using the same purchased materials. It would be a huge step forward in terms of increasing the quality of the fan experience.
maps are a continual headache when running PbP's here..I'm dreadful for not checking e-mail and prefer to do everything up front on the boards so I have to
1)copy map to pictures folder
2)paste map to my favoured mapping program(Dungeonographer/Hexographer)
3)Trace over the map, which depending on complexity can take me up to two hours(granted dungeons are a lot easier as its mainly straight lines) and hope I don't miss any salient points
4)Snip the now Non-Paizo version of the map and copy to my pictures folder
5) Transfer said map to photbucket
6) Post map
and don't even ask about artwork
However there's a certain pleasure in doing overland maps this way because things never quite line up and the party might misread the map completely.
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Paizo is already reviewing material when they screen posts in the forums so the difference may be smaller than you are thinking. I'm not sure what commercial material you are referring to because the map folio are reproductions of what's in our paper and digital copies already and the other third party stuff (battle tokens) is third party and unique anyway with its own value.
In terms of copyright, users are allowed to do whatever they want for personal, non-commercial use. From what I understand, I am allowed to edit digital maps and make monster chits and make NPC handout cards and reprint them for my home and PbP games to my heart's content. This kind of stuff goes on all the time and is blind eye-sanctioned on this site because Paizo allows the email-it-to-me-too threads to continue.
It's a pretty small step from there to allowing owners of the material to see what others have done using the same purchased materials. It would be a huge step forward in terms of increasing the quality of the fan experience.
The question would be how to protect Paizo's interest in preventing people from distributing their copyrighted material while at the same time enabling people to share their fan material.
Referring to your proposal: How to do this without having to re-program half of the website? Your proposal sounds neat, but not exactly like an easy task for Paizo.
A different proposal: If the problem is largely to create your own version of the copyrighted maps - why not create a website for fan created alternative maps? You'd be able to use these maps for any fan project, wouldn't you? And any map for a certain area just needed to be done once.
Kr,
G.
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Wellard: I run my one PbP game elsewhere and use the maps as I see fit. It's personal, non-commercial use but even so, I feel your pain.
I have done exactly what you describe for a couple of scenarios in my RotR campaign already - a kingmakeresque exploration side-trek into the Western Mushfens and a hexification of the area around Ft. Rannick for the same campaign. Traced and posted.
Guennarr: For your first point, it seems like a small step to go from limiting me to downloading either the full or split version of "my" PDFs, to limiting me to downloading those plus fan-work made from same. The uploading and database part would be pretty simple to code.
I do a fair amount of tracing and reprinting and sharing (often I'll make exterior versions of buildings with blank insides for instance because we play pen and paper and I don't like spoilers). I'm proficient at making decent line-drawings and understand scale and whatnot but I'm a ways away from making really nice maps.
I make a couple of campaign aids that I think everyone should have but are not even close to distributable under the current licensing scheme:
1) Flash-cards with NPC pictures so my players can see who they are interacting with on the front and descriptions about personality, speech mannerisms, relationships etc. on the back for me. These are awesome - I clip them to the front of my DM screen with a paper clip and it really helps connect the PCs with the NPCs (and reminds them who's who when they haven't seen so-and-so for several sessions).
2) 1"=5' monster tokens using the amazing art from the PDFs/Bestiaries/etc., cropped and in a sheet for printing and cutting out.
For those who know Kingmaker, I made a map showing where the Stolen Lands Map (from my pdf) fit on the big Golarion Map (scanned from my campaign guide map) to understand where it is and its scale. I also compared a KM hex to other areas. It was pretty quickly brought down even though the big map is all over the internet and the small map is pretty tame compared to the IP violations out there.