Hey, look, Stefan has something to say about WGPO

[key_lime_guy]

Would it be petty to point out that the webmaster of the WGPO site has apparently lifted the main image on the site from this guy's personal blog (second image down, cropped a bit), without any visible acknowledgment?

Comments

[vinylchances]

Hmm, is that more or less petty than saying they lifted other things without acknowledgment? Like, you know, rating systems and rule books?

[nigelbo]

I'm just curious (or ignorant, or both), but how does 'lifting' vary from 'using' ? for instance, how is NASPA not 'lifting' the rulebook from the NSA?

[baudekin]

I don't know the exact legalities, but at least in substance, NASPA was officially granted consent by the NSA/Hasbro to run the tournament scene (basically taking over where the NSA left off). Using/updating the rulebook would come part and parcel with that. WGPO is using it without that consent.

[listeme]

Rules are not protected by intellectual property right law, nor should they ever be.

[winterene]

It's not petty, it's just misleading.

It's the culture of the Internet that content is taken from other sites all the time, sometimes with permission and acknowledgement, and sometimes without.

In this case, the portion of the image used is such that it is reasonable to assume there is a fair chance that the owner of that website wouldn't mind and wouldn't care.

Personally, I don't want to get an e-mail asking for permission every time some non-commercial entity (student, blogger) wants to use one of my photos or some passage of text from my site.

[key_lime_guy]

It's the culture of the Internet that content is taken from other sites all the time, sometimes with permission and acknowledgement, and sometimes without.

Yeah, it is, and that's sort of lame. There seem to be a lot of people who think that because they found something "on the internet" that it just sort of happened, without thinking that, hey, it's on the internet because someone put it there, and that same someone may actually own it.

And nice as it is that you've decided that the owner of the image probably wouldn't care, he actually does have this disclaimer on his site:

Noncommercial users are welcome to copy my images provided they acknowledge the source. I am more than happy to help people design or create their own steampunk contraptions, but if you are a company looking to steal my work for mass-production, please know that I have design patents, trademarks, and copyrights pending or in place on most of my designs, my logo, and my name.
They will be brutally enforced if necessary.
I also disagree with your apparent

[winterene]

> And nice as it is that you've decided that the
> owner of the image probably wouldn't care

I stand corrected. My bad.

[vinylchances]

agree

[j_is_worth8]

I had noticed the image and thought it should have been acknowledged as to the source. In other news: I went to the WGPO site to resign my membership a couple weeks ago ... there is no way to do so except to send them an email. I didn't want my nominal membership being added into their announcements of reaching membership milestones.