Zhu Bajie
Member
Please note that all Games Workshop products are still in copyright, and they have never released PDFs of their Warhammer rulesets, White Dwarf (or other Periodicals) thereby all PDFs circulating on the internet are illegally distributed copies.
RISK OF LITIGATION
Games Workshop PLC has a reputation for aggressively defending its trademarks and copyrights, and has threatened sites such as Board Game Geek and RPG.net, forcing them to remove fan-made products else face costly legal battles. They do seem to turn a blind eye to fan-made army-list PDFs, but this is purely at their discretion. By discussing obtaining illegal copies of out of print materials on this board, we run the risk of drawing undue and unwanted legal attention to ourselves.
SUBSTANDARD COPIES
Many of the PDFs circulating on the internet are incomplete - much information of interest to the Oldhammer community - adverts for miniatures, for example - have been edited out of some magazines, and sometimes full-page artwork is missing. There is no substitute for an actual copy. Most materials can be bought from the second-hand market for less than their contemporary counterparts.
DAMAGE TO COLLECTORS MARKET
While this is difficult to prove, flooding the market with cheap (or free) versions of out-of-print materials will decrease demand for original product. This will devalue your collection over time. Would you recast the Citadel Giant in resin and send it to someone? Moreover once recast miniatures have a habit of proliferating, you might recast a figure for your own army, thinking it's fine as it is personal use, but when you sell your collection, it's passed on to someone who is non-the-wiser.
LIMITATION
We cannot control what you do in private or on your own blogs. However, I would encourage anyone to read the copyright laws in their own countries, read up on Games Workshop PLC. and their defenses of their copyright specifically with recourse to their actions to other websites (BGG) and also the current (as of 2013) Chapterhouse case. Another indicative case is that of Wizards of the Coast vs. 8 file-sharers in 2009.
TL
R
Don't discuss file-sharing or recasting openly on the board. Thank you.
RISK OF LITIGATION
Games Workshop PLC has a reputation for aggressively defending its trademarks and copyrights, and has threatened sites such as Board Game Geek and RPG.net, forcing them to remove fan-made products else face costly legal battles. They do seem to turn a blind eye to fan-made army-list PDFs, but this is purely at their discretion. By discussing obtaining illegal copies of out of print materials on this board, we run the risk of drawing undue and unwanted legal attention to ourselves.
SUBSTANDARD COPIES
Many of the PDFs circulating on the internet are incomplete - much information of interest to the Oldhammer community - adverts for miniatures, for example - have been edited out of some magazines, and sometimes full-page artwork is missing. There is no substitute for an actual copy. Most materials can be bought from the second-hand market for less than their contemporary counterparts.
DAMAGE TO COLLECTORS MARKET
While this is difficult to prove, flooding the market with cheap (or free) versions of out-of-print materials will decrease demand for original product. This will devalue your collection over time. Would you recast the Citadel Giant in resin and send it to someone? Moreover once recast miniatures have a habit of proliferating, you might recast a figure for your own army, thinking it's fine as it is personal use, but when you sell your collection, it's passed on to someone who is non-the-wiser.
LIMITATION
We cannot control what you do in private or on your own blogs. However, I would encourage anyone to read the copyright laws in their own countries, read up on Games Workshop PLC. and their defenses of their copyright specifically with recourse to their actions to other websites (BGG) and also the current (as of 2013) Chapterhouse case. Another indicative case is that of Wizards of the Coast vs. 8 file-sharers in 2009.
TL
RDon't discuss file-sharing or recasting openly on the board. Thank you.
I had the original Necromunda and Outlanders when the boxed games came out, never got the revised versions.