"They finally really did it..."
A while back I wrote my breakup letter to Traveller as a third party publisher and gave my reasons why. Today, I have to honestly say I'm glad I walked when I did. John Watts, head of Gypsy Knights Games, recently announced that he had major issues with the new Travellers' Aid Society terms and conditions, which you can't see until you go to upload something on DriveThruRPG. The terms state:
"'User Generated Content' shall be defined as the copyrightable elements included in your Work, such as original characters, scenes, locations and events. User Generated content shall not include the illustrations and cartographic artwork included in your work. Per the terms of this Agreement, you expressly agree that your User Generated Content, once submitted to the Program will become Program IP and useable by other members of the Program as well as the Owner as described in this Agreement."...and furthermore:
No Reversion. Due to our licensing arrangement with the Owner and the collaborative nature of the Program, you are granting us broad licenses in your Work and your User Generated Content included in your Work, and the rights to your Work will not be reverted once it is published in the Program. You will have the ability through online tools at OBS websites to stop public display and sale of your Work on OBS marketplaces, but not to stop the sale of works of other authors in the Program even when such works use your User Generated Content that you originally created in your Work and thereby became part of the Program IP for other authors to use.In short, surprise! You've just lost control of your intellectual property! Now, I don't have a problem with the way the original OGL states things - namely, if you clearly specify what material in your product is Open Game Content, as well as acknowledge the copyrights of the authors whose OGC you use in Section 15 of the OGL, you're fine. However, this - at least to me - implies the need for professional courtesy, namely, asking the author of the material you want to use for their consent. What the Mongoose TAS "program" does is eliminate the professional courtesy aspect of things and allows anybody who is part of "the program" to have their way with your material, even if you've taken your product off the market after another person makes use of the material in their product.
Further clouding the waters is the fact that now people can publish material for ANY part of the Third Imperium, including the Spinward Marches, which has long been a historical landmark for Traveller. The original licenses restricted OTU publications to the Foreven Sector, which was a player/GM reservation of sorts. Now it would seem nothing is holy to Mongoose Publishing. How Marc Miller let this slide is beyond me.
Overall, trading the freedom to write material for all of the OTU in exchange for giving up your IP rights is a bad trade - a very bad trade. With the Traveller and Foreven Sector licenses, there was still enough freedom in exchange for maintaining control over one's intellectual property. The choices were simple - you could write your own setting for Traveller under the Traveller license, or you could publish material for the OTU set in the Foreven Sector. The only checks and balances were that the writers had to ensure their products trade dress was significantly distinguishable from that of MgT or any other previous Traveller product (CT, MT, TNE, etc).
At any rate, there's discussion of the matter on the CotI boards and Mongoose forums. You'll have to log in to comment at either place, but given Mongoose's track record of a barely-supported SRD, a failed attempt at Traveller organized play, and running with bad ideas while ignoring playtest feedback, I'm not holding my breath for change.
EDIT: As I reflected upon what I wrote today, I felt it was a good idea to further explain why the TAS offer is such a bad deal as compared to the original Traveller/Foreven OGL. Additionally, I thought I was a bit misleading and hyperbolic regarding the discussion of the matter elsewhere online. While it has remained fairly civilized at both forums, Mongoose has been very quiet with regard to the concerns voiced by third-party publishers; meanwhile, general questions regarding Marc Miller's control over the OTU have been quickly answered... Make of that what you will...
EDIT #2: Some of you may have noticed all of my Foreven material has disappeared from my old Forge of Foreven blog. I purposely reverted everything to draft in order to prevent any "misunderstandings" between me and Mongoose Publishing. That being said, if any of it does see the light of day again, it will most likely be under the FFE Fair Use Policy. Meanwhile, John Watts of Gypsy Knights Games was kind enough to post the full language of the TAS "agreement" to the MgT 3pp group on Facebook. I'm providing it here for those of you who are masochistic enough to wade through a bunch of legalese. TL;DR version: "All your Traveller are belong to us. Good day."
This Community Content Agreement (this “Agreement”) is a binding agreement between you, the individual identified by your customer account on this website or the legal entity you represent, and OneBookShelf, Inc. (“OBS”) the parent company of website marketplaces including DriveThruRPG, RPGNow and more.
This Agreement covers your participation in and use of The Travellers' Aid Society and the OBS websites that administer it, (the “Program”).
1. Acceptance
You accept this Agreement by clicking “I Agree” to set up and submit a new title (the “Work”) to OBS.
2. Intellectual Property Definitions
(a) Mongoose Publishing (collectively, the “Owner”) has granted OBS the right to use elements of Owner’s Traveller game (“Owner’s IP”) and sublicense certain limited rights to you under the terms of this Agreement.
Owner’s IP includes any and all Traveller tabletop roleplaying materials and content made available to you through the Program including, but not limited to:
Traveller rule sets
Portions and elements of Traveller campaign setting(s)
Artwork and other graphic templates and materials
Owner’s IP may be amended at any time and for any reason whatsoever without liability to you. However, any Work published in the Program prior to the removal of Owner’s IP will not require the removal or amendment of that Work.
(b) “Program IP” shall be defined as any User Generated Content (defined, below) distributed by the Program.
(c) “User Generated Content” shall be defined as the copyrightable elements included in your Work, such as original characters, scenes, locations and events. User Generated content shall not include the illustrations and cartographic artwork included in your work. Per the terms of this Agreement, you expressly agree that your User Generated Content, once submitted to the Program will become Program IP and useable by other members of the Program as well as the Owner as described in this Agreement.
3. Account Information; Account Suspension.
(a) Account Information; No Multiple Accounts. You must have an active user account in order to participate in the Program. You must ensure that all information you provide in connection with establishing your account, such as your name, address and email, is accurate when you provided it, and you must keep it up to date as long as you use the Program. You may maintain only one account at a time. You will not use false identities or impersonate any other person or use a username or password you are not authorized to use. You also consent to our sending you emails related to the Program and other publishing opportunities. This consent regarding contacting you by email takes precedence over any contrary directions you may have given us, including through Owner’s website.
(b) Account Security. You are solely responsible for safeguarding and maintaining the confidentiality of your account username and password and are responsible for all activities that occur under your account, whether or not you have authorized the activities. You may not permit any third party to use the Program through your account and will not use the account of any third party. You agree to immediately notify OneBookShelf.com of any unauthorized use of your username, password or account.
(c) Account Suspension. We may suspend your account or your participation in the Program at any time. You acknowledge that if we do so, you may be prevented from accessing communications and content on the OBS websites. If we suspend your account, you must stop using all The Travellers' Aid Society accounts and you will not create any new accounts.
4. Rights Granted to You.
(a) Subject to your compliance with the terms of this Agreement, OBS grants you the limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable, personal, worldwide and revocable right to use and otherwise incorporate Owner’s IP and Program IP into your Work(s) for distribution through the Program or other platforms and channels at the sole discretion of Owner.
(b) Except for short promotional excerpts used to promote your Work, you may not display, recreate, publish, distribute or sell your Work (or derivatives thereof) outside of the Program administered on OBS websites or through other platforms or channels authorized or offered by Owner.
5. Rights You Grant to OBS
(a) No Reversion. Due to our licensing arrangement with the Owner and the collaborative nature of the Program, you are granting us broad licenses in your Work and your User Generated Content included in your Work, and the rights to your Work will not be reverted once it is published in the Program. You will have the ability through online tools at OBS websites to stop public display and sale of your Work on OBS marketplaces, but not to stop the sale of works of other authors in the Program even when such works use your User Generated Content that you originally created in your Work and thereby became part of the Program IP for other authors to use.
(b) Exclusive License to your Work. Effective as of the date you setup your Work through the Program on OBS’s website, you grant us the exclusive, irrevocable license for the full term of copyright protection available (including renewals), to develop,
license, reproduce, print, publish, distribute, translate, display, publicly perform and transmit your Work, in whole and in part, in each country in the world, in all languages and formats, and by all means now known or later developed, and the right to prepare derivative works of your Work.
(c) Exclusive License to all User Generated Content in your Work. Effective as of the date we first make your Work available through the Program, you grant us the exclusive, irrevocable license for the full term of copyright protection available (including renewals), to all User Generated Content included in your Work. You agree that the User Generated Content is available for unrestricted use by us without any additional compensation, notification or attribution, including that we may allow other Program authors, the Owner and other third parties to use the User Generated Content.
6. Waiver of Claims; Waiver of Moral Rights.
In order to prevent legal claims that could be disruptive to the Program participants or impede the ability of you and other Program authors to participate in the Program, you irrevocably waive any legal claim you may have under any theory of law in any territory that your rights were infringed due to any use of your User Generated Content by us, the Owner or its affiliates, licensees and sublicensees, and/or any other Program authors, including copyright infringement. This waiver does not apply to royalty payments we may owe you under Section 7. You also irrevocably waive any moral rights in your Work and agree not to assert any moral rights in your Work against us, the Owner, and/or other Program authors. If, under any applicable law, this waiver of moral rights is not effective, you acknowledge that your Work is subject to the licenses you grant in Section 4 without any credit obligation, that you intend for your Work to be used in this way, and that this form of use will not be contrary to your moral rights.
7. Royalties and Payments
(a) Royalties. As full consideration of the rights you grant us under this Agreement, we will pay you a 50% royalty of the price paid on digital download format sales of your Work, and a 50% royalty on the print margin of print-on-demand sales of your Work. Print Margin is the amount paid less the print cost to physically manufacture the book as listed on OBS websites.
(b) Sales taxes and freight charges are not considered part of the price paid.
(c) No royalties accrue on sales resulting in consumer refunds, charge backs, or fraud.
(d) Royalties are computed in US dollars.
(e) Royalties are paid via PayPal. You shall have access on OBS websites to a webpage that allows you to withdraw accumulated royalties to your PayPal account. OBS may deduct a fee of $2 or PayPal’s prevailing fee for its MassPay service from each payment to you.
(f) OBS or Owner may send complimentary copies of your work for reasonable promotional and administrative purposes. No royalties shall be paid to you on such copies.
(g) You shall set the sale price of your Work. OBS may include your Work in site promotional sales events at discounts up to 40% off your normal sale price.
(h) Royalties on a sale of your Work shall be eligible for your withdrawal 60 days after the sale.
8. Representations, Warranties and Indemnity.
You represent and warrant that:
(a) You are old enough to form a legally binding contract.
(b) If you are accepting this Agreement on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you represent that you have the legal authority to bind that company or legal entity.
(c) Excluding the Owner’s IP and Program IP which we license to you and excluding the illustrations and cartographic artwork in your Work, you are the sole owner of all rights in your Work. You have the rights or license to use the illustrations and cartographic artwork in your Work.
(d) Your Work does not contain material that is libelous; that violates the copyrights or trademarks of another party; that violates the law; or that the general public would classify as pornography.
You will indemnify and hold OBS and Owner harmless from any liability or cause of action arising from any breach of your representations and warranties including all reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.
9. No Obligation to Make Available or Sell. You acknowledge that we have no obligation to market, distribute, or offer for sale your Work, or to continuing marketing, distributing or selling your Work after we have started doing so. We may remove your Work from the Program and cease further exploitation at any time in our sole discretion without notice to you.
10. Disclaimers; Limitation of Liability. THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS." WE AND THE OWNER WILL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA, LOSS OF PROFITS, COST OF COVER OR OTHER SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, EXEMPLARY OR RELIANCE DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR IN RELATION TO THIS AGREEMENT, OR FOR ANY EQUITABLE REMEDY OF DISGORGEMENT OR OTHERWISE, HOWEVER CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF THEORY OF LIABILITY. IN NO EVENT WILL OUR (OR OWNER) LIABILITY UNDER THIS AGREEMENT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (I) THE AMOUNT OF FEES DUE AND PAYABLE BY US TO YOU UNDER THIS AGREEMENT FOR THE TWELVE-MONTH PERIOD PRECEDING THE CLAIM AND (II) FIFTY DOLLARS ($50.00). WE SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM, WITH RESPECT TO ALL SERVICES, SOFTWARE, CONTENT OR PRODUCTS PROVIDED BY OR ON BEHALF OF US IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT OR THE PROGRAM, ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. YOU AGREE THAT WE CANNOT ENSURE THAT EDITIONS OF YOUR USER GENERATED CONDITIONS WILL BE PROTECTED FROM THEFT OR MISUSE OR THAT CUSTOMERS WILL COMPLY WITH ANY CONTENT USAGE RULES. ONEBOOKSHELF WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY ARISING FROM A FAILURE OF ANY SECURITY SYSTEM OR PROCEDURE OR OF ANY CUSTOMER TO COMPLY WITH ANY CONTENT USAGE RULES. WE CANNOT GUARANTEE THAT OUR SYSTEMS WILL ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE, AND WE WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY ARISING FROM SYSTEM OR PROCESS FAILURES, INTERRUPTIONS, INACCURACIES, ERRORS OR LATENCIES.
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE DISCLAIMER OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES; AS SUCH THE FOREGOING DISCLAIMER MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU IN ITS ENTIRETY.
11. Execution of Further Agreements and Documents. Protection of rights sometimes requires formal filings of paper documents and it may be helpful for us to have physical signed versions of this Agreement or other documents. You agree to sign and deliver to us any further documents that we may reasonably request to confirm your grant of rights to us (and Owner) under this Agreement, following all instructions we provide for signature and return (“Additional Documents”). If you do not complete and return any such Additional Documents within 30 days after we request them, you agree that we can sign the Additional Documents on your behalf and, to make your agreement legally enforceable, you hereby irrevocably appoint us as your attorney-in-fact with full power to execute, acknowledge and deliver the Additional Documents as required to confirm our rights. In legal terms, your appointment is a power coupled with an interest.
12. No Rescission or Injunctive Relief. All rights granted to us (and Owner) under this Agreement are irrevocably vested. No breach by us (or Owner) of this Agreement will entitle you to equitable relief, whether injunctive or otherwise, against or with respect to your User Generated Content or any other works produced pursuant to the rights granted under this Agreement or their exploitation. If the rights granted to OBS (or Owner) under this Agreement should revert to you under any copyright law or similar law, and if you are at any time thereafter prepared to enter an agreement with a third party for the license, exercise or other disposition of all or any of those rights, you will, before entering into the agreement, give OBS and Owner notice of the proposed terms (and all modifications of the terms) and the party involved. In each case, both OBS and Owner will then have 10 business days in which to elect to acquire the rights involved on the terms you offered to that third party.
13. General Provisions.
(a) This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to its subject matter. If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid by a court or other tribunal with jurisdiction over the parties to this Agreement, that provision will be deemed to be restated to reflect as nearly as possible the original intentions of the parties in accordance with applicable law, and the remainder of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect. The failure of either party to enforce any provision of this Agreement does not waive the party's rights to subsequently enforce the provision.
(b) The parties are independent contractors with respect to each other. This Agreement does not constitute and shall not be construed as constituting a partnership or joint venture among the parties hereto, or an employee/employer relationship.
(c) This Agreement will be binding upon, inure to the benefit of and be enforceable by the parties and their respective successors and assigns.
(d) You agree that all matters relating to your access to or use of the Program, including all disputes, will be governed by the laws of the United States and by the laws of the State of Georgia without regard to its conflicts of laws provisions. You agree to the personal jurisdiction by and venue in the state and federal courts in DeKalb County, Georgia, and waive any objection to such jurisdiction or venue. The preceding provision regarding venue does not apply if you are a consumer based in the European Union. If you are a consumer based in the European Union, you may make a claim in the courts of the country where you reside. Any claim under this Agreement must be brought within one (1) year after the cause of action arises, or such claim or cause of action is barred. You expressly acknowledge and agree that no recovery may be sought or received for damages other than out-of-pocket expenses, except that the prevailing party will be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees. In the event of any controversy or dispute between us and you arising out of or in connection with your use of the Program, the parties shall attempt, promptly and in good faith, to resolve any such dispute. If we are unable to resolve any such dispute within a reasonable time (not to exceed thirty (30) days), then either party may submit such controversy or dispute to mediation. If the dispute cannot be resolved through mediation, then the parties shall be free to pursue any right or remedy available to them under applicable law.
No comments:
Post a Comment