Moorman wrote:
I would like to provide a gamers and BGG users perspective on the GW C&D.
We all know that IP protection laws exist, and that they can and sometimes will be enforced by the companies owning the IP. This is neither good nor bad by itself, it is a necessity of the current system we live in.
What made me angry about GW action is the following:
BGG is a growing site, and had been a source of fan-made material for GW as well as non-GW games for years now - and this was more or less ignored on behalf of GW. During this time, BGG has developed a growing community of it's own - growing both in numbers and in the influence it has on the marketing of board games. This is beneficial for both gamers and game publishers alike.
Then Space Hulk appears, and as expected, being such a good game, it makes a big success here on BGG. Suddenly, GW starts taking big interest in what happens on BGG! The fact that this has happend only a couple of months after SH's big success here tells me that GW has reckognized the advertising potential that BGG rating board has on the global gaming market, and has decided to remodel BGG to suit it's needs.
Next thing we know, GW takes an exceedingly aggressive step in this direction, with total disrespect for the community that is behind BGG, and which provides the power that BGG is starting to acquire in the board game market. They request indiscriminate file removal, but not the game entry removal!
Fact is, there are people (and I think there's many of them) who come to BGG to check the highest rating games in order to consider buying some of them. So, BGG clearly has a big advertising potential. But, BGG is also a place for gamers to meet in goodwill and exchange fan-made material, photos, stories and such...
GW has acted with a moto: take what you want, sue what you don't. Very ruthlessly, efficiently and indiscriminately.
Yes, some of the removed files could have been illegal (not in a criminal way, but only due to people not caring to read the small print), but if GW is not happy with BGG policies which seem to be ok with every other gaming company which has it's entries here, than I say: let GW stay clear of BGG altogether.
Yes, we all would lose by that because we would not be able to exchange our ideas and what we like about their games (which are in my opinion mostly gorgeous), but I think that like this we risk even more!
I want BGG to remain what it is. I don't want to see other game publishing companies one by one following suit because this has come to pass. I want to say how I feel about this in order to try to prevent that.
If GW is aggressively weilding it's power against what we stand for, than I feel it is entirely ok to cut down the free advertising we have provided for them. In my comment I have written what I really think about Space Hulk - that it is an awesome game, but I don't want for our community to become a part of a corporate marketing machinery which has to put up with lawsuit threats for posting playeraids online.
If GW comes to our party, it is not entitled to play it's own music. If it threatens with lawyers, it can very well leave for all I care. I don't like powergamers in real life any more than I do in Warhammer 40K.
The timing of this letter probably had nothing to do with the release of Space Hulk. GW recently sent out a wave of letters asking that sites respect their wishes in regards to how the sites used GW IP. Some of the sites probably complained back along the lines of "But such and such a site does it", which forced GW to send out a second round of letters (either that, or GW noticed more sites and sent out a second round of letters). It seems that BGG was in the second group of letters to go out.
While it may seem insulting to a BGG member that GW treats BGG just as it would treat a more specialized site like Talkbloodbowl, bolterandchainsword, or belloflostsouls, the fact of the matter is that a GW game or miniatures game specific site does more for GW's business than BGG does.
GW is not asking for anything that other game companies haven't asked for - that files that they feel are IP violations be removed. While they don't seem to have asked in as friendly a manner as some of the smaller companies with closer ties to BGG did, they did so in a legally appropriate manner that seems common for large corporations. In fact, BGG already has policies that ask users not to upload files that may violate other companies' IP. This is to protect BGG from legal action by other companies.
GW also didn't ask for "indiscriminate" file removal. They asked for removal of files which violate their IP guidelines. This is why some files were not removed, and why others have (reportedly) been reposted (either after review, or after revision).
What you aren't thinking of is what companies consider their products to be. FFG doesn't have a problem with having game rules available on BGG because they don't sell game rules, they sell the game as a unit. GW frequently sells their rulebooks as a product. This means that they don't want rulebooks available for free download - unless GW are offering it as a free download, in which case they want it to be downloaded from their own site, so they can pull the download if they ever decide to sell the rulebook again.
Last edited on 2010-01-09 02:31:37 CST (Total Number of Edits: 1)
Posted Thu Dec 10, 2009 3:27 am
Just playin' with ya, doc. Have an awesome Thursday.
