DO we need or can we get special permission to print this out at say Kinkos or through some other printing establishment so we can have a hard copy? My printer is up for the demand and the amount of ink would not be nice.
Permission to Print
I doubt FFG would care if you printed out your own copy to use for yourself or gaming group.
I doubt FFG would care if you printed out your own copy to use for yourself or gaming group.
No, they will call da police to arrest this man immediately.
MyNeighbourTrololo said:
No, they will call da police to arrest this man immediately.
Woohoo! Real life stormtroopers!
A simple answer to your question lies in the legalese at the beginning of the book, under the copyright/trademarks section:
"No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers."
Note that this doesn't apply to the character sheet, as that bit is covered by a separate disclaimer at the bottom of the sheet, that allows for photocopying of the sheet for personal use.
So yes, you would need prior permission of the publishers to have the entire book printed out. Doing so without their permission would be a breach of copyright law, and any company that printed it out for you would also be in breach of copyright.
That's the purely legal standing for the situation - whether they actually would go after you for printing it out for your own use is another thing entirely.
MILLANDSON said:
A simple answer to your question lies in the legalese at the beginning of the book, under the copyright/trademarks section:
"No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers."
Note that this doesn't apply to the character sheet, as that bit is covered by a separate disclaimer at the bottom of the sheet, that allows for photocopying of the sheet for personal use.
So yes, you would need prior permission of the publishers to have the entire book printed out. Doing so without their permission would be a breach of copyright law, and any company that printed it out for you would also be in breach of copyright.
That's the purely legal standing for the situation - whether they actually would go after you for printing it out for your own use is another thing entirely.
Of course, then there is the matter of Fair Use, and what actions one can take under those particular sections of copyright law in the United States. A full printing of the book is still a no-no, but a section or two for referencing might be permissible. You will want to ask FFG about it, probably through the |Contact| link at the bottom of the page. After all, better safe than sorry.
-=Brother Praetus=-
Copyrights are about distribution. As long as you don't give away or sell either the original or the prints, you can do whatever you like.
Make a copy on your iPad, a USB stick for easy transport, on Dropbox for easy access. Print it to read on the couch or wipe your 4$$, whatever you like. You do not need the copyright holder or publishers permission to do any of these things, no matter what they might like you to believe.
Darth Smeg said:
Copyrights are about distribution. As long as you don't give away or sell either the original or the prints, you can do whatever you like.
Make a copy on your iPad, a USB stick for easy transport, on Dropbox for easy access. Print it to read on the couch or wipe your 4$$, whatever you like. You do not need the copyright holder or publishers permission to do any of these things, no matter what they might like you to believe.
Actually, that entirely depends on which country you're in. In the UK, printing it off would be illegal, as there is no exception to copyright law for private copying or copying for the purposes of format shifting (ie printing off a PDF, or copying a CD onto a computer).
Might be restrictive, but it shows that your blanket statement is incorrect.
Brother Praetus said:
Of course, then there is the matter of Fair Use, and what actions one can take under those particular sections of copyright law in the United States. A full printing of the book is still a no-no, but a section or two for referencing might be permissible. You will want to ask FFG about it, probably through the |Contact| link at the bottom of the page. After all, better safe than sorry.
-=Brother Praetus=-
You are, of course, assuming that we're all in the United States though, which, at least for me, isn't the case, so it's the law of my home nation (United Kingdom) that applies to me, just as the national laws of anyone here apply to them, rather than US law. For example, the UK actually has no real "Fair Use" exceptions to copyright, and it's the same in several other countries. So for some of us, we would be legally required to ask permission to copy/print it, otherwise we'd be breaking the law.
*apologies to people, I've just finished my Masters' thesis in copyright law, so I've been wallowing in this stuff for months
*
*apologies to people, I've just finished my Masters' thesis in copyright law, so I've been wallowing in this stuff for months *
And now I'm happy you didn't switch from playtesting to writing or we'd probably have thirty pages of rules on requisitioning stuff from the Munitorum…
Additionally to what MILLANDSON said, there's another problem: Even if the law in your country makes it legal to print the stuff for your own use, printing it at a copy-shop is another question because that's commercial - the copy-shop owner would make money printing stuff FFG owns. Some friends of mine had a similar problem: They wanted some custom-made dice with the symbols of a TT game faction. Technically no problem, but of course, they couldn't manufacture the dice themselves and as soon as they pay someone to do it, he's not allowed to…