General Printouts and Fair Use?

[Spinward Scout]

I'm wondering with all of the different versions of Traveller, when you make printouts for your Players, does Fair Use only apply per edition, per book, or Traveller as a whole?

I've got 5 pages of MegaTraveller I want to print out - 3 in one book, two pages in another.

Is this Fair Use

And if I add more, at what point is too much?

 

[Grav_Moped]

I'm wondering with all of the different versions of Traveller, when you make printouts for your Players, does Fair Use only apply per edition, per book, or Traveller as a whole?

I've got 5 pages of MegaTraveller I want to print out - 3 in one book, two pages in another.

Is this Fair Use

And if I add more, at what point is too much?

What do you plan to use them for?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I'm wondering with all of the different versions of Traveller, when you make printouts for your Players, does Fair Use only apply per edition, per book, or Traveller as a whole?

I don't print out anything for players.

 

[coliver988]

Most games allow for limited printouts. It really depends on a lot of use cases. And of course, insert the IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer). Most games, for personal use, allow a bit. The whole rule set - not likely. But a couple of pages, probably. Bigger point is as long as you are not publishing or selling them, and you fall into the fair use type of thing, probably okay.

I've printed out some combat charts just so players can have those handy as in my group, I am the only one with any Traveller books (1 player may have some in storage but he's not positive). But usually the only things I print out are my handouts: maps if necessary, character cards, stuff I've created.

But again, I am not a lawyer. But, from the 3 pages in 1 book, 2 in another, my guess (and only a guess) is that it falls under fair use.

And my players like my character cards - I list the skills on the back. In-game character sheets.

 

[Dragoner]

One reason I make the maps so big in Solis is so that people can print them out and use them, that is sort of the whole reason behind what I am doing, is for real astrometry.

 

[Spinward Scout]

What do you plan to use them for?

Handouts for Players.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Handouts for Players.

My layman's opinion is that I'm pretty sure that's not a problem -- see coliver's post, above.

 

[Spinward Scout]

My layman's opinion is that I'm pretty sure that's not a problem -- see coliver's post, above.

I figure it's for playing the game, so...

 

[aramis]

I'm wondering with all of the different versions of Traveller, when you make printouts for your Players, does Fair Use only apply per edition, per book, or Traveller as a whole?

I've got 5 pages of MegaTraveller I want to print out - 3 in one book, two pages in another.

Is this Fair Use

And if I add more, at what point is too much?

IANAL...

But, given prior allowances and , Making copies for table use? Marc probably will consider that fair use..
Making copies for them to keep? not likely.
Printout of a whole book for at the table? Yes.
Printout for sending home with a player? only for temporary use.


Some history
Now, there was a period where Marc explicitly allowed copying books for friends... Only CT materials by GDW, and only one such copy per physical book. That has been withdrawn, since Marc started selling the big floppy books, and Hunter was securing a license to CT to sell the PDFs. (One of the early era of COTI funding streams was a license to sell CT PDFs. Only with the recent change of board has the last vestiges of that store gone away. Hunter also was licensed for the various Pacesetter RPGs, but those now are licensed to PIGames.

One of the risks of ebook purchases: when the storefront loses the license, or the storefront goes down, people lose access to their materials.

I'll note as well - the CD and DTRPG scans are so very much better than the ones Hunter put up... but they're on a new generation of both hardware and OCR software.

Marc has always supported reasonable use for play as fair use, provided that it's at-the-table use.

 

[ovka]

IANAL...

But, given prior allowances and , Making copies for table use? Marc probably will consider that fair use..
Making copies for them to keep? not likely.
Printout of a whole book for at the table? Yes.
Printout for sending home with a player? only for temporary use.


Some history
Now, there was a period where Marc explicitly allowed copying books for friends... Only CT materials by GDW, and only one such copy per physical book. That has been withdrawn, since Marc started selling the big floppy books, and Hunter was securing a license to CT to sell the PDFs. (One of the early era of COTI funding streams was a license to sell CT PDFs. Only with the recent change of board has the last vestiges of that store gone away. Hunter also was licensed for the various Pacesetter RPGs, but those now are licensed to PIGames.

One of the risks of ebook purchases: when the storefront loses the license, or the storefront goes down, people lose access to their materials.

I'll note as well - the CD and DTRPG scans are so very much better than the ones Hunter put up... but they're on a new generation of both hardware and OCR software.

Marc has always supported reasonable use for play as fair use, provided that it's at-the-table use.

This brings up a question that I have been thinking of recently as I age. I have a large number of e-documents that I have purchased over the years (DriveThruRPG, FFE CDs, Paizo, and other places). When I pass, has anyone put any thought into what happens to those e-documents?

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

 

[whartung]

Legally, likely, you probably have no right to pass them on to heirs. Those documents are "licensed", not "owned". Typically these are not subject to first sale.

That said, nobody is going to be kicking in doors.

The trick is to simply ensure that someone has the login credentials to get to these things in the future.

 

[coliver988]

This brings up a question that I have been thinking of recently as I age. I have a large number of e-documents that I have purchased over the years (DriveThruRPG, FFE CDs, Paizo, and other places). When I pass, has anyone put any thought into what happens to those e-documents?

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

and this is oddly paralleling the other discussion on death in space....

There is some legal guidance as the law has not kept up with technology (and never really has and is only getting worse). But in terms of the original question, fair use, with the addition of "what happens to my stuff when I am gone" I shall leave the AARP answer here It is a really long link but the top domain is the AARP.

But at the bottom of the article, it is pretty much as Whartung says above. Not entirely sure about PDFs as it may vary based on where you got them from:

When you download a song from iTunes or a book to a Kindle or other e-reader, you don't actually own the item. Instead, you purchase a license to use the download during your lifetime. "In some cases what you think you own and what you actually have a legal right to pass on are very different. Some of these things just can't be transferred," explains Gerson. So don't promise someone your amazing iTunes collection before making sure that it's yours to pass on. (You can find out by reading the TOS agreement.)

And finally - I can *almost* see a Traveller adventure about reclaiming digital documents from your patron's dead <insert family relationship here> and having all sorts of interesting legal/administrative issues. Finally get to use that Admin skill!

 

[Condottiere]

Block chain, non fungible tokens.

Though reregistering ownership, I understand, incurs fees, which sounds like a Ponzi scheme.

Anything electronic that doesn't get bureaucratic can be copied any number of times, and distributed like tote bags to every family member, who can keep or discard them per taste.