scenario maps

[mikecook]

I'm a longtime, faithful fan of the whole TOAW series. I don't believe in stealing intellectual property and I bought several versions of TOAW fair and square. I bring it up because I have been trying to design a hypothetical scenario for a long time. I feel like I have good ideas and have designed much of my formations and events as much as I can without a map. I have tried to edit suitable maps, but they wind up SUUCCKKING. what is the possibility of using an existing TOAW3 map? I don't want to run afoul of anyone's copyright, and I don't want to step on the toes of the people who designed the existing maps. I DO want to design a scenario and upload it and see if anybody likes playing it. Can I use an existing TOAW3 map? Anybody know?

[1_Lzard]

IIRC, the maps on this site ( http://forums.gamesquad.com/downloads.php?do=cat&id=37 ) should be usable by you w/o worry. You WILL have to subscribe to the forum, though.......

[Curtis Lemay]

I don't think anyone has copyrighted any map. However, as a courtesy, if you're going to use someone else's map in a scenario you'll publish you should get their permission to do so, and credit them in the briefing for that permission.

[Panama]

Last page of the manual:

ALL EDITORS MAY BE USED TO CREATE SCENARIOS THAT MAY BE FREELY DISTRIBUTED.
ALL SCENARIO AUTHORS HOLD THE ULTIMATE RIGHTS
TOTHEIR DESIGNED SCENARIOS AND MATRIX PUBLISHING, LLC MAKES NO CLAIMS THEREOF.
YOU MAY NOT COPY OR DISTRIBUTE COPIES IN ANY MEDIA FORM. ANY PERSONS DOING SO
SHALL BE GUILTY OF COPYRIGHT VIOLATION AND SUBjECT TO THE APPROPRIATE CIVIL OR
CRIMINAL ACTION AT THE DISCRETION OF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER.

I'm not a lawyer and I don't know how binding all of that is but I wouldn't want to be the one to find out. Some of these maps and the research done in the scenarios are the results of hundreds of manhours of work. So if someone did object to using their property it would be understandable.

[ColinWright]

ORIGINAL: Panama

Last page of the manual:

ALL EDITORS MAY BE USED TO CREATE SCENARIOS THAT MAY BE FREELY DISTRIBUTED.
ALL SCENARIO AUTHORS HOLD THE ULTIMATE RIGHTS
TOTHEIR DESIGNED SCENARIOS AND MATRIX PUBLISHING, LLC MAKES NO CLAIMS THEREOF.
YOU MAY NOT COPY OR DISTRIBUTE COPIES IN ANY MEDIA FORM. ANY PERSONS DOING SO
SHALL BE GUILTY OF COPYRIGHT VIOLATION AND SUBjECT TO THE APPROPRIATE CIVIL OR
CRIMINAL ACTION AT THE DISCRETION OF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER.

I'm not a lawyer and I don't know how binding all of that is but I wouldn't want to be the one to find out. Some of these maps and the research done in the scenarios are the results of hundreds of manhours of work. So if someone did object to using their property it would be understandable.

Legally? I wouldn't worry. The position was just the reverse prior to Matrix' purchase. Scenario designers supposedly had no rights at all to their product. Now they have complete control? How'd that happen?

Leaving aside the question of whether the owner of a commercially sold program has the right to dictate the terms of its use and even to reverse them without the consent of the purchasers, since a scenario has nil commercial value no one was ever going to pursue a case in court either way -- or if they had, you could have paid them the fifty dollars the jury would have awarded and gone on your way.

Morally, the position has never changed. If you want to use someone else's work, you need to get their permission. I suppose if they're dead or have genuinely dropped out of sight, then an attribution would be sufficient.

Some things are perfectly legal but quite wrong. Other things are quite illegal but perfectly moral. Some are both. Some are neither. In an ideal world, law and morality would coincide, but we don't live in an ideal world, and they don't coincide, and whatever Matrix or anyone else says, obviously you should get the permission of the designer.

[mikecook]

Thanks everyone for the advice and especially to Rhinobones for the generous offer of his map from the scenario "Revisionist War."