Discussion: Campaign Wiki License Agreement

[pbemguy]

I've been reading the Creative Commons sites and everything. Here's my starting point. People have been concerned about keeping the ownership of their contributions. Here is a blurb to start the ball rolling. My understanding is that you can write in plain English and the notices are still legally binding.

 

Proposed starting point:

License: Any contributions made to this wiki remain the property of the contributor, as identified by their herogames.com/forums username. This wiki is free for public use. Illustrations created using Fabrica de Herois. This wiki is not for commercial use; it exists for fun and to provide a free campaign world for Champions players.

 

So we'd have this blurb (or whatever this blurb morphs into) appear on each and every page of the wiki. I know that it's not in final form, but this is where we can start the discussion.

 

Note: When we started talking about the wiki, I envisioned the contributors giving up their ownership and donating to the wiki. But, understandably, people want to hold onto their creations. 

[IndianaJoe3]

I think it would be best to explicitly use one of the existing CC licenses (probably CC BY-NC-SA), so we don't get ambushed by some schmuck with a lawyer who thinks he can appropriate the material that's in the wiki because the terms in the license were vague. It may also protect Hero Games if The Mouse decides that one of the characters posted is a little too close to something they've published.

[pbemguy]

2 minutes ago, IndianaJoe3 said:

I think it would be best to explicitly use one of the existing CC licenses (probably CC BY-NC-SA), so we don't get ambushed by some schmuck with a lawyer who thinks he can appropriate the material that's in the wiki because the terms in the license were vague. It may also protect Hero Games if The Mouse decides that one of the characters posted is a little too close to something they've published.

 

I did read that one. It would fit. Here's the summary:

 

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

 

You are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

 

No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

 

Notices:
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

Keep in mind that you can't unilaterally change the license on people.  If anybody has contributed anything to the wiki, you can't retroactively say their contribution was under the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.  You'd have to label each individual snippet of content with what license applies, or delete everything and start over so everything falls under the chosen license. 

[pbemguy]

9 minutes ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

Keep in mind that you can't unilaterally change the license on people.  If anybody has contributed anything to the wiki, you can't retroactively say their contribution was under the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.  You'd have to label each individual snippet of content with what license applies, or delete everything and start over so everything falls under the chosen license. 

 

Good point. We will definitely factor this in. This is a great reason as to why we have to hammer this out before the wiki software is installed and we begin wiki-ing.

[pbemguy]

So this how I think the license should go. The proposed copyright blurb/license is included near the end of this post. I have been using the Forgotten Realms wiki as my inspiration. It's a perfect model because it has everything statted in 5e but then there are "tabs" that have other conversions, like this.

 

 

I have used this Forgotten Realms wiki a lot. I think the Campaign World one we are envisioning will be better than the Forgotten Realms one, but will share many of the traits.

 

Anyway, getting to the point, the license agreement on the Forgotten Realms page is like this:

 

This is how our wiki license should be worded. And then, when each person adds their own material to the wiki, they can include their own ownership blurb. So, if someone writes a blurb about a dance club owned by a villain, with lots of details, then they add. "This page is copyright pbemguy. Contact pbemguy on the Hero forums for details."

 

So the license blurb for the wiki would look like this: 

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted. 

This page is copyright <insert username>. Contact <insert username> on the Hero forums for details.