Will there be Community Servers or only Official Servers?
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@holyhong said in Will there be Community Servers or only Official Servers?:
@FibS I think LoA devs cannot be sued for intellectual property issues if third parties (=community devs) are infringing copyright.
Perhaps not yet - but the EU has just passed a law that makes web sites liable specifically for the copyright-relevant activities of their users regardless of the site's Terms of Service, which will encourage other nations to follow suit if they haven't already, and it's only a small step from that to punishing the provider of a tool for the copyright activities of people who use said tool, also regardless of their Terms of Service.
And as long as community is not doing it on a commercial/economic basis it looks like fair-dealing in terms of copyright law to me.
Moving from EU law to US law as I don't know how the EU handles fair use...
... it doesn't make a lick of difference whether or not a copyright infringement is commercial; that is not one of the criteria for fair use, and even if it was, fair use does not exist until you are already in the courtroom because it's a legal defense; it won't stop you from being sued.
It's like how if you injure someone in self-defense, that won't stop an officer from arresting you if he finds cause to do so. Claiming self-defense at that time will in fact only prove to him that you injured the person and thus justify your arrest. Claiming self-defense will only help you after you're dragged into the courtroom and are now defending against the assault / battery charge.
Look at so much Steam-Workshop content, for instance. Paradox Universe's "Stellaris", as an example, got a fan-created Warhammer 40k and Star Trek setting and either side is facing copyright issues.
They will soon enough! Steam will be strong-armed into removing the items from its listing.
Besides, who knows, in case such copyright problems arise, maybe community (will) sort it with copyright owners officially; huge fanbases are often willing to donate/pay/pledge for their beloved projects (as we do for Fractured right now
)If the community is able to license work, then that's an entirely different story.
Unfortunately most of the time this is not feasible, depending on the company you're trying to work with, the quality and content focus of your product compared to the original brand's image, and the diplomatic ability of your team.
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