Dear God-Emperor, the stupidity!

[Tyyr]

I'll probably be labeled as an attacking asshole but I still don't get it. I mean if a parent is careless enough to buy their kid a box of space marine figures, assemble them, and paint them without having any idea about the content of the setting does she really think they're going to go online and try to look this kind of info up?

[Aaron]

I'll probably be labeled as an attacking asshole but I still don't get it. I mean if a parent is careless enough to buy their kid a box of space marine figures, assemble them, and paint them without having any idea about the content of the setting does she really think they're going to go online and try to look this kind of info up?

Most likely not. Though I find his logic flawed from the very start, most kids under twelve aren't going to be able to paint, play or pay for this on their own but going by the parent site this guy belongs to, he's a nutter.

[Tsukiyumi]

Screw Warhammer, I'm buying my kid an AR-15.

[Aaron]

I'm surprised no one emailed the link to GW and got the IP police after him, guess even fans wouldn't wish that on dipshits.

[Sionnach Glic]

Hell, I'm amazed that GW didn't find him on their own. The guy posted entire pages of material there, including artwork.

[stitch626]

GW?

[Tyyr]

Games Workshop. Think the RIAA but psychotic and vengeful.

[Sionnach Glic]

GW?

Games Workshop is the company that owns the rights to Warhammer 40K and all the related franchises. They protect this copyright with an almost fanatical zeal, ruthlessly killing off websites that even slightly infringes on them. Indeed, nearly all 40K sites left have a complete ban on posting so much as a sentance taken from their material, lest GW find them and slap them around. Hell, IIRC, I once heard about a tatoo parlour that got sued because they offered to do tattoos of some 40K symbols. GW's copyright branch are just utterly insane and ruthless, and it's one of the main reasons so many 40K fans have quite a lot of contempt for Games Workshop itself.

This guy originaly had entire pages from GW owned rulebooks and stuff, including artwork from those books, posted on that page. The simply fact he managed to have that stuff up for a whole week or so without being found is rather amazing.

Actualy, maybe that's why he took his original page down. GW found him and threatened to sue the hell out of him. Hey, given that the guy was trying to convince people not to buy the stuff, they've certainly got one hell of a motive for wanting his site down.

[stitch626]

Ah got it. I was wondering what the first president of the United States had to do with this...

[Sionnach Glic]

Well, I'm sure he'd be railing against the evil Brits in this case, too, so he's still sort of aplicable in a tangental way.

[Mikey]

In fact, being less experienced with GW than some others here, I agonized and wrote numerous e-mails to Graham before even thinking of doing a 40k RPG here. They regard intellectual property much the same way a starving wolf regards a sirloin.

[Sionnach Glic]

Aye, you have to be very careful when dealing with GW related stuff, lest they come down on you like a tonne of bricks.

One thing that amazes me is that Lexicanum is still running after all this time. Though that's probably due to the fact that they put disclaimers down the bottom of every single page pointing out that they don't own any of the stuff they have articles on.

[Mikey]

Lexicanum as well as the other wiki which comprises mostly the same articles. But you're right about the absolutely ridiculous amount of disclaimers and trademark/copyright notifications - literally, a large paragraph on each page. There may have even been some contact with GW in the case of the Lexicanum... and the erstwhile advertisement of Black Library titles doesn't hurt, either.

[Aaron]

I wish they'd just give you an electronic copy with your purchase, set it so it can only be used a certain amount of times or something.