webdiplomacy.net

ssorenn wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 03, 2018 9:17 pm

I’ve gotten games, just getting quality games is tough. There’s only people like you left.

bo_sox48 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:10 pm

Diplomacy is copyrighted. Hasbro holds a trademark on the name as well if I remember correctly. Selling something we do not own is illegal without licensing rights, which were given to Avalon Hill by the creator of the game and have been redistributed where they see fit, but not here. Hosting it without cost is not only legal but widely encouraged because it's free advertising. Avalon Hill and Hasbro are smart enough to recognize that out of the 100,000 users on our site and countless others on other sites, some of us will buy the board game from them.

If you have an actual question for me, ask away, but the point of this is that exchanging money over a game over webDiplomacy is not allowed. If you want to exchange money over a game without using webDiplomacy, feel free.

Fishstudios wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:36 am

bo_sox48 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:10 pm

Diplomacy is copyrighted. Hasbro holds a trademark on the name as well if I remember correctly. Selling something we do not own is illegal without licensing rights, which were given to Avalon Hill by the creator of the game and have been redistributed where they see fit, but not here. Hosting it without cost is not only legal but widely encouraged because it's free advertising. Avalon Hill and Hasbro are smart enough to recognize that out of the 100,000 users on our site and countless others on other sites, some of us will buy the board game from them.

If you have an actual question for me, ask away, but the point of this is that exchanging money over a game over webDiplomacy is not allowed. If you want to exchange money over a game without using webDiplomacy, feel free.

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

Whether or not you're making money is irrelevant as far as the legality of the site is concerned. Distributing copyrighted material without permission is copyright infringement, regardless of whether you're profiting from it. There are, of course, exceptions such as "fair use" (use for education, parody, news reporting, et cetera), but I doubt this site constitutes fair use.

Of course, in practice monetization likely makes a difference when it comes to the copyright holder's decision whether to actually enforce their copyright, and that may well factor into Avalon HIll's decision to not bother the site.

Furthermore, game mechanics are, as far as I'm aware, a shaky part of copyright law (at least in America-ish jurisdictions). Obviously the actual game (as in, the specific artwork on the board, the exact wording of the rule book, et cetera) is copyrighted, but it's not as clear that you can copyright (or patent, or otherwise claim ownership of) the game mechanics themselves. Here are some sources (admittedly just obtained by googling "copyright board games"):

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/interna ... 77320.html
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/493249 ... ademarks-a

So this site might not actually be infringing on copyright at all. The trademark is still an issue, but if it actually started causing problems it could be dealt with by changing the name of the site, and I think you might possibly be able to argue that it's being used as an example of "descriptive fair use".

bo_sox48 wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 4:46 pm

Fishstudios wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:36 am

bo_sox48 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:10 pm

Diplomacy is copyrighted. Hasbro holds a trademark on the name as well if I remember correctly. Selling something we do not own is illegal without licensing rights, which were given to Avalon Hill by the creator of the game and have been redistributed where they see fit, but not here. Hosting it without cost is not only legal but widely encouraged because it's free advertising. Avalon Hill and Hasbro are smart enough to recognize that out of the 100,000 users on our site and countless others on other sites, some of us will buy the board game from them.

If you have an actual question for me, ask away, but the point of this is that exchanging money over a game over webDiplomacy is not allowed. If you want to exchange money over a game without using webDiplomacy, feel free.

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

Whether or not you're making money is irrelevant as far as the legality of the site is concerned. Distributing copyrighted material without permission is copyright infringement, regardless of whether you're profiting from it. There are, of course, exceptions such as "fair use" (use for education, parody, news reporting, et cetera), but I doubt this site constitutes fair use.

Of course, in practice monetization likely makes a difference when it comes to the copyright holder's decision whether to actually enforce their copyright, and that may well factor into Avalon HIll's decision to not bother the site.

Furthermore, game mechanics are, as far as I'm aware, a shaky part of copyright law (at least in America-ish jurisdictions). Obviously the actual game (as in, the specific artwork on the board, the exact wording of the rule book, et cetera) is copyrighted, but it's not as clear that you can copyright (or patent, or otherwise claim ownership of) the game mechanics themselves. Here are some sources (admittedly just obtained by googling "copyright board games"):

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/interna ... 77320.html
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/493249 ... ademarks-a

So this site might not actually be infringing on copyright at all. The trademark is still an issue, but if it actually started causing problems it could be dealt with by changing the name of the site, and I think you might possibly be able to argue that it's being used as an example of "descriptive fair use".

If we were to get sued by a major industry player with a sum of cash exceeding what we have (practically a guarantee), fighting the lawsuit would be monumentally annoying and costly. The site would not survive a well-funded frivolous lawsuit. As such, we don’t want to invite one.

Likewise, as you pointed out, we are not only governed by American law. Other nations’ laws have changed what we are allowed to do numerous times in the past and will in the future. Being perfectly legal in the United States means very little when your site is not hosted there and your players visit you from all over the globe.

All told, when kestas founded this site, it was not expected to be as big as it was. It was open source code and the vast majority of online Diplomacy sites either used kestas’s code or were influenced in their code choices by it. His purpose was to make Diplomacy playable online, specifically but not exclusively on webDiplomacy, and making money off of it was not an important part of that equation for him. That is why we are 100% free to play and funded by completely optional donations and why we do not run ads of any kind. We have been offered significant sums of money from players, investors, and complete strangers to turn this site into a profitable machine and have said no without hesitation every single time. That is why we will never monetize this site. It has nothing to do with laws and everything to do with a commitment kestas made when he founded the site.

Gambling isn’t allowed on here because we’re not dumb enough to try that again after the last tournament involving money ended with a TD disappearing off the site with the prize winnings that he was supposed to distribute. Maybe I should have led with that.

ssorenn wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:14 pm

You sound like a schmuck. Why would a lawsuit from Hasbro be frivolous if brought against any diplomacy site. ? Stop speaking, you end up sounding stupider every time you speak.