Lawsuit Update - IMPORTANT!

[JCP]

As some of you already know, Legend of the Green Dragon was recently served a lawsuit.

Lawyers for Hasbro (i.e. Wizards of the Coast, i.e. Dungeons & Dragons) have decided that since lotgd.net has a PayPal link, we do not qualify as a fan site and therefore the use of Hasbro copyrights - drow, Drizzt Do'Urden, Eilistraee, etc. - is copyright infringement and they are suing us. For $500,000.

We have an attorney and think that we have a good chance - the actual text of the game does not appear to violate any copyrights, only user-entered text. Upon the advice of our attorney, we need to ask your cooperation in minimizing the damage.

Although we are only facing a lawsuit from Hasbro, we need to take drastic action to prevent further lawsuits from other copyright holders just in case things don't go our way.

So, please remember that the races available in the game are just generic "human", "dwarf", "elf", and "troll". You don't have any special powers, or wings, or lycanthropy, or other-dimensional history. (Especially the Endless - DC is under Time Warner and they have deep pockets.) Every thing needs to be on the up and up so we have the best chance to get a ruling in our favor.

The following role-playing events are being used to explain this:

-All renegade drow or drow slaves that have escaped are being returned to the drow. The connection between the village and the drow will then be severed.

-Magic spells are being cast to cut the village off from any other dimensions, etc. It's us and Ramius - that's it.

-Silver dust and holy water are being constantly sprayed.

In addition, elves are elves, and references to Mirkwood, Galadriel, etc, need to be changed.

Should this impact your character, just contact me and we'll change your name - no need to delete your character and start over as far as dragon kills go.

Every character should have an original back story that does not even remotely touch some published, copyrighted material.

Hopefully we will be able to convince a judge to throw out the lawsuit and we can go back to the great roleplaying. In the meantime, now would be a good time to think about contributing via the paypal link as attorney fees are rapidly using up our funds. Don't donate for a few days until we announce the special fundraiser premiums, though.

Thank you for your immediate cooperation. Or, as the drow would say,"Slo'of lirpa DeKnarp ne'ebe vahu oy."

[Voratus]

Let me be the first to say that Hasbro is a bunch of <censored> <censored>.

[Booger]

sorry to hear about this, I hope all goes well for you.

I wonder why they are coming after you though. there are plenty of other commercial online games that charge 12+$ / month and they don't have to limit the names or fictional background of characters like this.

[MightyE]

Fortunately I'd already persued council for licensing reasons, so I had someone I can talk to about this right away. I've been told to not discuss most of the details pending further investigation by the legal team, but I'll share what I think I can here. Fortunately LoGD has a positive balance in the account, and our legal rep is working for peanuts, so unless this becomes very drawn out (or we lose), we shouldn't have to worry about it depleting the finances.

My council says that if we lose, we'll probably end up having to shut the site down, and revoke licenses on other distributions. Essentially, LoGD would be owned by Hasbro / WotC, and it'd become a copyright violation for anyone to run a copy with out getting a license from them directly. Whether they elect to release licenses to run LoGD is a different issue, and one on which I'd have no say. The contention is that the environment set up in LoGD are too similar to the branding and environment of WotC games. Further a number of the math routines for calculating damage and such are copyrighted by WotC, so if we wanted to rewrite the game to not infringe (given that it's found that we *are* infringing), it'd mean a genre change, and a gutting of the entire stats / combat system that's in there now. Essentially we'd have to strip out almost everything that makes LOGD what it is.

Part of the damage reclamation requirements in the suit are that we provide information necessary to identify users of the site to Hasbro / WotC who might have infringed on the copyright. I'll try to protect you guys all I can, but, no offense, I'm not gonna sit in jail for the rest of my life under contempt of court if that's how things come down.

The suit is filed under the 401st district court in Washington state.

[MightyE]

sorry to hear about this, I hope all goes well for you.

I wonder why they are coming after you though. there are plenty of other commercial online games that charge 12+$ / month and they don't have to limit the names or fictional background of characters like this.

Classic lawsuit blitz start. You go for the little guys first, the ones who probably can't defend themselves, and use the victories there to a) set precedent, and b) use the revenue to build larger suits.

[Sumgi]

Really sorry to hear about this. Does this mean that anyone currently running a server should shut it down or just wait to see where the cookies crumble or if they crumble at all?

[MightyE]

Really sorry to hear about this. Does this mean that anyone currently running a server should shut it down or just wait to see where the cookies crumble or if they crumble at all?
Definately wait and see how it falls out. Until a court orders otherwise, we're basically 'innocent until proven guilty.' I'll indemnify people on this front as the code author.

[Angul]

Hasbro's case holds no water. The paypal link helps to pay to keep the site up. As for the drow, etc, that is strictly roleplaying which is caused by the individual characters in an effort to entertain. Quoting JCP:

"So, please remember that the races available in the game are just generic "human", "dwarf", "elf", and "troll". You don't have any special powers, or wings, or lycanthropy, or other-dimensional history. (Especially the Endless - DC is under Time Warner and they have deep pockets.) Every thing needs to be on the up and up so we have the best chance to get a ruling in our favor. "

Vampires, lycanthropes, witchs, wizards, and such existed before Hasbro was created and they hold no rights to say that we cannot *pretend* to be such. Even though we have to choose one of the generic races we should be able to *pretend* that we are offshoots of whatever. I can see how Hasbro would be mad because of the names used, but they need to understand that is strictly role-playing and that we aren't descrating the names. Any decent judge is going to realize this.

Perhaps MightyE could add a link to the square stating the stand on Drow and maybe wash his hands clean of it. Perhaps that's a bad comparison. What I'm trying to say is that MightyE needs to have something that reads that this site is (oh figure it out yourself, I'm not good at words right now).
And perhaps a paypal link to WotC.

This lawsuit is a bunch of crap. They are only going to succeed in drawing attention to themselves and the game.

[Pwyll]

Wow, it's like Clash of the Titans or War of the Worlds or something!

[JCP]

"Slo'of lirpa DeKnarp ne'ebe vahu oy."

You have been pranked. April Fools!

There is no lawsuit, and there is no reason to change your character names or biographies. (Although having more original backstories than escaping from the drow may be something to think about :) )

Lots of people figured it out, and other people didn't.

But the offers of cooperation and support were overwhelming.

Thank you so much for all your kind words and loyalty - everyone is really passionate about the game and the work that is involved.

And on behalf of the staff, we appreciate all of you just as much.

[thinkingpost]

:lol: It's a good thing I game regularly... or is it... hmmm... Not married, 25, tech job, Oh Crap! (Runs to nearest school to re-train as a chef)

Anyways, very good one guys. I wish I had fallen for it though, it would have been more fun for me. But I just happened to know about the Open Game Content policy and you guys are under the radar with it. I did almost doubt it for a bit because of the paypal thing, but then I realized that you can prove it isn't a primary source of income, but just a support system in court.

[Mitsuko]

You are all evil, adult men and women, you admins...Evil evil people...But, I love you guys anyway! ^.^ Just don't scare me like that again!

[Voratus]

You had me for a bit, since I saw the initial post was done on the 31st, and not April 1st. But then I thought, what is 10 PM in America to Europeans.
Then I developed the mindset of "lets see what the status is on the 2nd."

[Booger]

heh, it was 7 am and I was still asleep when I posted =P I figured it out shortly after but I thougth I wouldn't post any more and spoil it for the rest.

[MightyE]

Hehe, sorry for the dirty trick =)

[Sumgi]

I knew it all along! :roll:

[Atrus]

You sent me to my law reference library, you evil admin you.

Kudos for a class prank :oops: :oops: