As far as I know, The Weirding is in full-compliance with the Fair Use laws of the United States regarding Copyright Law. We never include information that would preclude visitors from purchasing the books/game (in fact, we offer free material for these games in hopes of enticing visitors to buy them through our affiliate links!), and the content we provide adds value to those previously-published materials.
We are in no way attempting to infringe upon anyone's rights with these works. We played, enjoyed, and love these games and want to share this fun with others. I'm forced to include a copyright on each of the pages to keep people from lifting the work I have done and putting it on their pages - that would be tantamount to including information from the books - however I encourage others to use my work to inspire their own. I only request a link back to the original material (which I rarely get). I also link-out to everyone whose material inspires me, or whose concepts I use in conjunction with my own content.
Tabletop roleplay gaming is a community-based hobby, and I want to extend both that community and the spirit of that community to the online world. However, I am cognizant and respectful of copyrights and the laws surrounding them. I'm less moved by the latter than I am the fact that real people put together these great games - games I've received much enjoyment from and truly love - and that those people deserve to be compensated for their work.
I wish more people online understood that of me and people like me, who are offering free content with advertising and trying to push these games through affiliate networks. Hosting and domain names are not free, nor is the time I spend organizing, designing, and publishing this material. I deserve to be compensated for sharing this stuff, just as those who created the games I support deserve to be compensated for their work.
Further, I really don't understand why people are more willing to pay for a PDF of this stuff than they are to visit a website with advertising. I know it isn't as bad as it was even a year or so ago, but that weird resentment seems to still be there in some circles. Due to copyrights, I am prohibited from publishing material for these older games in that form, but that aside, why wouldn't you want to check it out for free instead, anyway!?
Lastly, anyone, or company, who believes I have strayed too far from Fair Use is welcome to contact me. The e-mail address is RPG@theweirding.net. Thanks!
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© C Harris Lynn, 2011
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