40K Online
Main => Rules and Announcements => Topic started by: Grand Master Lomandalis on January 15, 2011, 12:33:39 PM
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Hello to everyone,
I had recently received an email from a very nice person from our good friends Games-Workshop. More specifically I received the email from their Legal Department. Now I am not able to go into exact details, but a little over two years ago a post was made that contained contact information for an employee of GW. The email I received was very polite but to the point. They understood that the thread was very old but they still wanted the information removed, which I was more than happy to accommodate.
Now, maybe this can make everyone understand why we are so strict on enforcing our rules. We do not do it because we are jerks, nor because we enjoy pissing people off or are power happy. The reason we enforce our rules so strictly is because we have had visits from GW Legal in the past and we really wish to avoid their attention.
So this post really is to let you know that we do what we do because we care, we want this site to remain open... and also to let you know that GW is watching what gets posted.
Regards,
GML and the staff for 40kOnline.
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I've always been baffled by the accusations that the rules were too rigerously enforced, they are all just so they surely must always be enforced? I'm glad to see we have avoided any future difficultues.
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I personally like the enforcement of the rules on this forum, even when I've been the one getting a warning. It really leads to a more mature community where people don't have to deal with some of the less desirable internet denizens.
Of course there's the space tavern for those who want to interact with those people so everyone's happy (or should be).
I just want to say thank you to all the mods and staff for doing a great job of keeping this forum the best 40k one I've ever posted on.
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I personally like the enforcement of the rules on this forum, even when I've been the one getting a warning. It really leads to a more mature community where people don't have to deal with some of the less desirable internet denizens.
Of course there's the space tavern for those who want to interact with those people so everyone's happy (or should be).
I just want to say thank you to all the mods and staff for doing a great job of keeping this forum the best 40k one I've ever posted on.
Indeed. This is one of the few places I can come to when life is crazy and just relax. As such, I would hate to see this site get shut down, and so fully appreciate and enjoy the structure and rules.
And I must advocate that this thread gets itself stickied for all those who tend to complain and then go out in a fiery crash...
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And I must advocate that this thread gets itself stickied for all those who tend to complain and then go out in a fiery crash...
Agreed. Although it is sometimes amusing to see the quality of their posts spiral downwards until they finally ragequit... And then invariably some of them show up a few months later ::)
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Rules are rules and using this site, means you have agreed to them. GW wants to stay in business, 40K Online wants to stay online.
No problem there. Bring the rules!!!!!
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I personally like the enforcement of the rules on this forum, even when I've been the one getting a warning. It really leads to a more mature community where people don't have to deal with some of the less desirable internet denizens.
Of course there's the space tavern for those who want to interact with those people so everyone's happy (or should be).
I just want to say thank you to all the mods and staff for doing a great job of keeping this forum the best 40k one I've ever posted on.
I wouldn't be able to put in other words. Rules mean everyone stays safe and in business, AND create more quality content. if I come here regularly, that's because nearly everyone here get their best possible answers in the forums, and if they have nothing or silly things to say, they just keep on reading and skip posting.
In a way, the Legal Dpt from GW warns just so that everyone stays happy of 40k online and the hobby in general.
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I think it speaks volumes to the great job our moderators are doing that they don't get contacted by GW more often (a two year old post!) and that the site doesn't get threatened to be shut down. Kudos!
On the other hand, I know we want to avoid attention on this site by GW's legal department, but I wouldn't mind if their developers took a gander now and again. :)
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I really want to reply to this!
Can I please ask the mod's a question relating to his subject!
What if you DID actually ignore Games Workshops demands? Seriously whats the worst that can happen?
Seems to me (in my naivety) that there are plenty of sites that break copyright, not in the sense that they are actively distributing codex's for free or anything, but in the sense that they arent so stringent in stopping somebody posting points values...
You guys seems a bit uptight with regards to moderating.
Why is that?
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Games Workshop can (and has) shut down sites that break their copyright/Intellectual Property rules.
They have lots of lawyers...
but mostly, they don't even have to use them. Simply filing a DCMA report to the server host is quite often enough to get a site shut down.
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Basically, GW can do send out a letter to the site owners saying that if they will sue them if they don't stop breaching copyrite. They can also send the same letter to the server host, as they are potentially liable for the contents on their servers. What this basically means is that the person getting the letter either does what GW wants, or has to spend a ton of money on lawyers to prove that it hasn't breached GW's intellectual property.
For a site owner, they might think the legal principle is worth spending tens of thousands of dollars on. Likely, however, they do not.
For the server host, someone else's legal issue is never worth them spending tens of thousands of dollars on - so they will almost cancel their contract with the site owners if they recieve such a letter.... which kills the site.
Note that in the scenarios above, what's important isn't whether the site has breached GW's IP... but whether GW thinks it has. Thus why we are extra careful not to give GW a reason to think we have.
And yes, this has happened before... sites have gone under due to breaching IP.
Inquisitor Moderatis Ruminahui
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There have been a great number of sites that have gotten their cease and desist-notes from GW. Some have complied, others have made a half-hearted try, and others have just carried on. Of those that complied the majority are still around. The same cannot be said for the others.
GW has, as explained above, the reach, clout and will to shut down pages they feel are in violation. We don't want that to happen here, to us, to this community. That's why we play it safe, and not intentionally upset anyone, nor commit digital piracy.
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a little over two years ago a post was made that contained contact information for an employee of GW.
How is this breach of IP though? When is a person's contact information (such as my phone number) have anything to do with copy-righted materials? (a book I wrote and made bajillions!)
I can understand the desire to keep the punks from spreading the erroneous "PDF copy" of a codex (angers me to see those monstrosities, when I think about how much I've spent in this hobby!), or another excuse I've heard before "I made my own resin copies because it would be too hard to gather all those bits!" (ahem, bullocks! Theif!), but somebodies' address... how/why does it matter at all?
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It may not be a breach of IP, but it may well be a breach of privacy legislation... which would potentially hold the same ramifications.
More importantly, its shows that GW is watching (all be it on a sporadic basis) and aware of this site.
Inquisitor Moderatis Ruminahui
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a little over two years ago a post was made that contained contact information for an employee of GW.
How is this breach of IP though? When is a person's contact information (such as my phone number) have anything to do with copy-righted materials?
It may well not be a breach of IP laws, but it's certainly not acceptable to put up someone's contact information on the internet without their knowledge or consent.
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a little over two years ago a post was made that contained contact information for an employee of GW.
How is this breach of IP though? When is a person's contact information (such as my phone number) have anything to do with copy-righted materials? (a book I wrote and made bajillions!)
That's not a breach of IP you're right, it's a breach of the data protection act which in many way's is worse
Imagine you worked for GW and people got wind of your contact details and then found out you'd worked on a project which they didn't like (and there's always someone who won't like it)
They decide to tell you why they didn't like it in their thousands or send you hate mail and threatening letter, the internet is absolutely full of lunatics after all
Better we nuke it and let you have the anonymity you'd prefer yes?
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In this case the mail was merely shown to you as an example of "GW is watching". It is not like they are not aware of what we are doing here, or who is doing it. They are looking at forums all the time, and if we did not abide by the rules they would see it, and take the appropriate action.
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This is my first post on 40k Online, and I am delighted to read that the site has such a stringent attitude towards its rules. I am a site admin on another 40k-related forum and we have an equally strict regime of rules and regulations governing the site. Probably the biggest one is the "No GWIP", which we enforce for exactly the same reasons as have been mentioned already. We do not want lawyers coming at us, nor do we wish to see a site which has been built up for about 10 years being pulled from under us just because some member decided to disobey the rules and we did nothing about it.
So good for you, mods and admins here at 40k Online. Keep up the good work.
E.
Edit: Heh heh! Apparently this is my second post according to the tally. Oh well...silly me.
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actually, it was your first post. :) The post count increases as you post, it is not fixed as it was when you posted. :)