
In October of '96, Joe Walsh began acting as Internet-liaison for
Imperium Games. This is what he reported about their copyright policy.


From: Joe Walsh <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 17:16:58 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: IG FAQ, 10/14/96

Imperium Games FAQ                                        October 14, 1996

Q.  What is IG's copyright policy in regards to original works posted to 
the Traveller Mailing List, WWW sites, and/or Usenet?

A.  Just include "Traveller is a Registered Trademark of FarFuture 
Enterprises.  Copyright (c) 1996" in the document, and IG will be fine 
with it.  Be aware that this makes your work the property of FFE, though.

Q.  Is there any way around this?

A.  Yes.  Don't mention Traveller in your article, and don't pull 
material from any Traveller product.  Say it is an article for use with 
science fiction RPG's, and keep it generic.

Q.  What is the policy regarding copying previously published works by 
GDW or IG to the internet?

A.  You have to get written permission from Marc Miller in order to 
legally do so.  He holds all the copyrights on all such material.


From: Jim Vassilakos <jimv>
Subject: IG's New Copyright Policy
To: traveller@NS.MPGN.COM
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 22:54:59 -0700 (PDT)

Joe Walsh reports IG's copyright policy: 
>Q.  What is IG's copyright policy in regards to original works posted to 
>the Traveller Mailing List, WWW sites, and/or Usenet?
>
>A.  Just include "Traveller is a Registered Trademark of FarFuture 
>Enterprises.  Copyright (c) 1996" in the document, and IG will be fine 
>with it.  Be aware that this makes your work the property of FFE, though.

Man, I sure hope this is some sort of misunderstanding.

Peter Miller writes:
> Which means they can use any material I place on my web site WITHOUT paying
> me?  I hope not.  Seriously though, am I right in my interpretation of this
> writing.  Say I put a starship up on my page (using T4 rules), and have the
> proper copyright information on it.  This means that IG can come along and
> use it for whatever they want, because they own it?

Not only does it mean that. It seems, at least by interpretation, to mean
that if IG decides at some later date that they no longer want your
starship designs on the web, they can effectively shut you down. By
agreeing to this policy now, you would be sacrificing all rights to your
own designs.
 
"athol-brose" <cinnamon@one.net> (r.n. dominick) writes:
> Woah, woah. This is NOT what the legal contact at Imperium Games told me
> when I asked exactly what I needed to put on my web pages to make them
> kosher. The only text on my page
> (http://w3.one.net/~cinnamon/traveller.html) is this:
> Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises. All rights
> reserved.

Looks like the policy just changed.

> I can see Imperium Games wanting this, and also wanting you to copyright
> your *own* pages (which is not a bad idea in and of itself) so that someone
> cannot come along and reprint them. The statement above just reinforces
> FarFuture's trademark status on Traveller.

Unless there is some form of miscommunication going on, which I *really*
hope is the case, it sounds to me like somebody at Imperium Games just
pulled a T$R. IMHO, this totally changes the relationship IG had with the
TML and with the fanzines and Traveller-enthusiasts everywhere. Joe, can
we get some sort of explanation for this? Is there perhaps some sort of
error?

Just to stick my neck onto the chopping block, here's the sort of
disclaimer that I could understand:

  "Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises (FFE).
  Use of this trademark or of any material copyrighted by FFE is not
  to be interpreted as a claim on such material. This work is to be
  considered "unofficial" and FFE cannot be held liable for damages,
  material or otherwise, resulting from its use. This work is
  copyright 1996 (author's name). All rights reserved, except that
  FFE may draw on this work in any fashion they deem appropriate."

This reason I include the last sentence is just for IG's own protection,
as it is possible that by pure coincidence, IG might publish something
fairly similar to something a fan writes, and this line would protect
them from the fan suing (not that I could envision this ever happening,
but it pays to cover your aft-quarters every now and then). Of course,
the fan would have to rely on IG's sense of "rightness" to not publish
their work wholesale without compensation, but I don't see this as a
problem. Some people (like myself) might not even want compensation,
and might amend the last sentence to read: "All rights reserved, except
that FFE is invited to draw on this work or even republish it without
requesting permission."

In writing all this, of course, I'm operating on the possibly-erroneous
assumption that Marc Miller isn't fixated on pulling a T$R. If he is, and
this advice is unwelcome, then Marc/Joe/somebody... please let us know so
that we can each make the personal decision about whether or not we, as
individual Traveller-fans, are willing to put up with this sort of
treatment. For myself, I have certain obligations to people who have
contributed material to the next version of "Galactic", but after that,
I can't really see myself staying involved with Traveller unless this new
policy of IG's is substantially amended.


From: Joe Walsh <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 08:34:55 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: IG's New Copyright Policy

On Mon, 14 Oct 1996, Jim Vassilakos wrote:
> Joe Walsh reports IG's copyright policy: 
> >Q.  What is IG's copyright policy in regards to original works posted to 
> >the Traveller Mailing List, WWW sites, and/or Usenet?
> >
> >A.  Just include "Traveller is a Registered Trademark of FarFuture 
> >Enterprises.  Copyright (c) 1996" in the document, and IG will be fine 
> >with it.  Be aware that this makes your work the property of FFE, though.
> 
> Man, I sure hope this is some sort of misunderstanding.

Jim,

I was asked to clarify IG's official copyright policy, so I put that in 
my notes and asked Ken that question, along with many others, yesterday.  
Here is the fragment of our conversation that relates to this issue:

Joe: "What is IG's copyright policy vis a vis TML/Web/UseNET-published 
materials for traveller, regarding: 1) original works, and 2) copyrighted 
works."

Ken:  "What do you mean by original works?"

Joe:  "Stuff that people make up on their own, like new equipment, new 
rules, etc."

Ken:  "Well, as long as they put 'Traveller is a registered trademark of 
FarFuture Enterprises.  Copyright (c) 1996' in there, there's no problem."

Joe:  "So that means that, technically, all such works are the property 
of FFE...?"

Ken:  "Yeah.  We've been lax in our enforcement of this requirement, but 
we really have to be more careful.  FFE could lose its Trademark.  But, 
we don't want to anger the fans."

Joe:  "It's a thorny issue.  So, what about copied works - copies of GDW 
or IG published works, such as deck plans, and...."

Ken:  "They'll have to get a Letter of Permission from FarFuture 
Enterprises.  Marc owns the copyrights on all that stuff. But
there's a way around that.  As long as they don't say it is 'For
Use with Traveller,' or 'Approved for Use with Traveller,' but
instead say, 'For use with science fiction RPG's' they don't have
to put the Trademark notice or the copyright notice."

So, again, I wasn't flying solo on those two Q's in the FAQ.  That's 
straight from Ken to you.

But, my personal opinion is that there's nothing to get excited about.  I 
personally don't see IG publishing people's stuff without their 
permission, or stepping in and shutting people's web sites down.  That 
would be extremely bad P.R., and would almost certainly not be worth it.  

IG is here to make games, and that's what they're focused on, now more than 
ever.  And, heck, at least one of you has posted a message from Marc 
Miller granting permission to post certain copyrighted GDW materials on the 
Web.  I don't see them being tight about this.

Perhaps I shouldn't have asked that follow-up question about the work 
being technically FFE's property.  It's just that that was what Ken's 
inclusion of the copyright statement seemed to imply, and I wanted to 
clarify it.


From: Joe Walsh <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 09:42:18 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: FAQ Errata?

Here's a revised version of the controversial section of the FAQ.  
Perhaps this will clarify things.  Until I hear otherwise from Marc 
Miller, this is how I'll keep it.  (Changes are noted in all-caps).

Q.  What is IG's copyright policy in regards to original works posted to 
the Traveller Mailing List, WWW sites, and/or Usenet?

A.  Just include "Traveller is a Registered Trademark of FarFuture 
Enterprises.  Copyright (c) 1996" in the document, and IG will be fine 
with it.  Be aware that this makes your work the property of FFE, 
though.  ALTERNATIVELY, IF YOU HAVE A LETTER OF PERMISSION FROM FFE, THE 
WORK WILL REMAIN YOUR OWN (ALTHOUGH YOU WILL STILL HAVE TO NOTE THE 
TRADEMARK).


From: FarFuture@aol.com
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 11:40:09 -0400
Subject: Re: IG's New Copyright Policy

In a message dated 96-10-15 02:22:19 EDT, you write:
> In writing all this, of course, I'm operating on the possibly-erroneous
> assumption that Marc Miller isn't fixated on pulling a T$R. If he is, and
> this advice is unwelcome, then Marc/Joe/somebody... please let us know so
> that we can each make the personal decision about whether or not we, as
> individual Traveller-fans, are willing to put up with this sort of
> treatment. For myself, I have certain obligations to people who have
> contributed material to the next version of "Galactic", but after that,
> I can't really see myself staying involved with Traveller unless this new
> policy of IG's is substantially amended.

It is not (nor will it be) my intention that I (Marc Miller, Far Future) or
Imperium Games be able to steal your work. The purpose of the
acknowledgements is to protect the Traveller trademarks and copyrights.

Look at DGP (which is some of the best stuff done for Traveller). Their
copyright notices included acknowledgements of the Traveller trademarks and
copyrights. Some pieces say copyright GDW and DGP. Now in order to use the
material (since their original license has expired) they need permission. AND
I can use their material in the sense that I can refer to their materials
when I (or Imperium writes new stuff). Which makes sense, since otherwise,
their participation in the universe would be totally disallowed (ie. you
asked about the Geonee, they were in TD 11, so what was said there would now
be NOT true).

But no one (at FFE or IG) is going to come along and download your materials
and print it or publish it.

Marc

