Article on Shasarak the Wytch-King

[bittermind]

I recently posted an article on my blog that I wrote a while back for Signs and Portents, for the Lone Wolf D20 RPG. It was a piece on Shasarak the Wytch-King - background, game stats, etc. The proposal was given the green light, the article was written and approved, and I was given a date for publication.

And then it was dropped, or forgotten about - I'm guessing here; nobody got round to telling me anything.

Anyway, I'm happy to have found a home for the piece at last, on my blog: -

pwgresty.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/shasarak-the-wytch-king/

It's a young blog; please be patient with the lack of content...

I'd really like to insert one or two of the pictures from the Grey Star books into the body of the text. How does this work in terms of copyright? Would it be possible to use a couple of the Grey Star pics from the Project Aon site?

[Thomas Wolmer]

The Project Aon License does not give you (or us) the permission to use the illustrations anywhere outside the Project Aon website. But, if you get Paul Bonners permission to use his illustrations in your article, you can pick use them from PA. Try contacting him at [e-mail].

[Zipp]

I believe blogs and such are exceptions to the copyright, though. Honestly, who is going to come after one little Lone Wolf article (good read by the way!) for using a couple images from a series of out-of-print gamebooks?

[Moon Dancer]

Copyright-wise, I think most people would be ok with it, as long as you're not using their work to make a profit for yourself.
Always best to check first though, just in case...

Good article
Was kind of intrigued as to how Shasarak got to where he was. His backstory wasn't really explored much in the stories.
(Seeing as the main character was focused more on kicking his butt than researching him, hehe)

[outspaced]

Likely, no one is going to come after him; but Thomas did answer the question asked.

Q: Can I use pictures from Project Aon?
A: Legally, no, because we "negotiated" their use purely for the PA website.

Personally, I find the current copyright laws to be insanely draconian (AFAIK there is not even a provision for "fair use" in UK law as there is in the US); but to ensure that we don't annoy or offend illustrators who have gifted their work to us gratis in good faith, and to ensure we don't get publishers breathing down our necks either, we can't grant the use of the illustrations to another site or blog. :-\

That said, if bittermind were to source scans of a couple of the GS illustrations by other means, I really don't think it would be a problem for him to post them.*

* This is merely my opinion, and should NOT be considered actual legal advice!!

[Thomas Wolmer]

Blogs are certainly not exempt from copyright, though depending on the nature of a blog (post), it may be "fair use" to include minor excerpts from a copyrighted work in it. For instance in reviews.

Just google "fair use", but note that, as Simon says, not all legislations include such a thing.

[Zipp]

And again, with any kind of law, you have to ask yourself what is the chance of being persecuted and what your options would be under such persecution. In your case, the chances are "less than winning the lottery" and your options would be to agree to a ceases and desist, in which case you would remove the photos. No harm done. Plus there are plenty of Grey Star images floating around the web. If you're nervous about using ones from PA, go grab one of the others.

[beowuuf]

I don't think it's a case of 'if you are nervous about' I think it's a case of 'do not use the PA versions due to the agreement they've come to with the artists including Joe himself'. Scan your own, find alteratives, etc.

The way Thomas spoke, PA themselves have to ask you to take it down, if you are using their own versions, right?

[Thomas Wolmer]

Yes. As a copyright violation, nicking pictures from Project Aon is not in itself worse than scanning them yourself and putting them online, but we have to make sure that our license is effective. If licensed material from Project Aon would start popping up all over the net, this would show that the Project Aon License is incapable of protecting the authors and illustrators's interests, and might make them revoke the permission to publish their material.

Now, I'm also pretty sure that not all of them care about some of their several decades old works that possess about zero commercial value. They'd perhaps allow their works to be published online under a more generous license - the pretty restrictive Project Aon License was initially devised by Joe Dever and Jonathan Blake to protect Joe's interests, and his works definitely do retain commercial value as proven by the Mongoose re-publications.

But since we have only one license (and we haven't queried the other authors and illustrators if they'd accept more lax distribution conditions), what you need to do if you want to use material from the Project Aon website is:
1. Get the permission from the copyright holder of the material.
2. Publish it with the note that you are doing so with permission from the copyright holder.
3. It's optional, but it'd be nice of you to credit Project Aon for the excellent scanning/OCR:ing/whatever job

[Zipp]

Just steal an image from somewhere else! Plenty of Grey Star online.