But here is my question, obviously a module can not be housed here but if you create the map and design the counters yourself and exclude all printed charts are you still in violation of copyrights if the company says no to vassal?
Copyright is a massively complex body of law–you could read about it for days and still know barely anything beyond the basics.
I don’t have a clue where the bright lines are when it comes to what’s an infringement of a copyrighted work and what’s not, but if you are trying to skirt the edges it probably comes down to what your purpose is and how much you call attention to it. It seems to me that very few people will go to the lengths of designing a homebrew version of game materials in lieu of just paying for the real thing, but if you do it and keep it to yourself or closely-held in a small group, maybe no one ever notices. If you build a website to share it widely and call a lot of attention to it, you probably get on the radar if the rights holder aggressively searches for infringements (e.g., a company like Games Workshop). In short: don’t be the tall blade of grass. And you can certainly by the letter of the law be infringing even if you aren’t ever spotted and subjected to consequences.
I wouldn’t trust any answers you get here–including mine–more than what you paid for them.
4 Likes
Oh I own a ton of their material 1k+ if I sold it all. I only wish to use vassal to play online instead of the 100+ a year they charge
Copyright is about distribution. If you’re making something for your own use and not distributing it, copyright is typically not relevant.
Well my friends and I were going to play it.
Hi,
I suggest you read this thread over at BGG - very illuminating.
I’m not a judge nor a lawyer, and as with all things legal, one cannot really tell until a court of law has decided, but here’s what I take away from it:
- Only original and artistic materials can be copyrighted.
- Artistic means graphics and particularly kinds of writing, and does not include technical writing
- Original means that it has not been copied verbatim or is indistinguishable from other material, and is not something with a bit of experience could easily come up with.
- Ideas, such as game rules or mechanics, cannot be copyrighted. They can, possibly, be patented, but that’s unlikely for games and requires an actual patent to be granted.
- Trademarks are easier to defend for games. Case in point, Star Fleet Battles could be claimed as a trademark, and then you cannot use that.
What it means, as far as I can tell is
- If you create your own graphics and text, then there’s no copyright infringement.
- But, you may have to change names, etc. that can trademarks.
Not entirely true, but to a large extent adequate. If you truly keep things “in-house”, meaning you don’t even share with friends, then you are making materials for your own use. But if you share it with friends you are “distributing” (whether you charge for it or not).
As someone who has actually done just that, I think it is worth to consider these questions a bit more. However, I’ve mainly done that not to save a buck, but rather because some games are hard to come by - even as second hand - especially in some areas of the world. In Europe, buying used games from e-Bay from the USA or other places easily becomes very expensive due to custums and shipping fees, and finding a game inside Europe’s borders can be somewhat challenging. That said, some games do not have VASSAL modules, and even if you can find high-quality scans it would be an obvious copyright infringement to use them in such a module.
Anyway, my 2¢ - from a non laywer 
Yours,
Christian
Hi again,
Just to follow up a bit.
- A claim of “all rights reserved” is probably not a defensible, in a court of law, claim. Copyright law, which is govern by international treaties in most juristticions, grants certain rights but not “all”. It would be much better if authors gave specific licenses - ideally something like Creative Commons, as such license are clear and stipulates what can and cannot be done to the materials.
- If someone makes a module with entirely new graphics and text (as I’ve done), then VASSAL should have no reason to reject that, no matter what the original authors think - at least on copyright grounds.
- If someone uploads a module that uses graphics and text from the original game, then VASSAL can have good reasons to reject that, unless a specific license has been granted.
- If a module uses trademarked content, such as logos, names, etc. then VASSAL could reject that, though the liable person would most likely be the module author - not VASSAL. DMCA, for example, which does make distributors liable to some extend, probably doesn’t apply because it is a trademark issue - not copyright.
It is actually questionable if BGG and VASSAL can distribute images from games unless a specific license has been granted. Photos of game boards, plays, etc. are probably OK (fair-use), but scans of counters, boards, cards, etc. are probably not. Note, however, that BGG often slams a Creative Commons license on things, which presumably is OK by the copyright holders, which will grant considerable leeway for re-use and distribution.
Specifically for Star Fleet Battles one could make a module that implements the same game-play, but with entirely new graphics and text. The name and shape of vessels would most likely have to be changed, and no direct reference to the original game can be made, for trademark reasons.
Again, my 2-non-lawyer-¢
Yours,
Christian
2 Likes