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ltmurnauConstant Readuhs will know about my game-designing hobby (despite recent posts, I am not gonna fool myself about this). Yesterday and this morning I had an interesting exchange concerning a game I designed last year and is about to be published.
The game is called Konarmiya and is about the Russo-Polish War of 1920. It matches up and can be played with another game I've done called Freikorps, an alternate-history design predicated on the idea that the Soviets won a game of the former and decide to march on Berlin in the latter.
Anyway, part of what I like to do in these games is throw in random events to tweak things a little one way or the other for players. In Konarmiya I had the following random event possibly occur:
Event 66 - It's Him Again. RAF Major Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy, of Beamington, Ontario, is dispatched with his squadron by Winston Churchill (then Secretary of State for War and Air) to aid the Poles in their crusade against Bolshevism. The White player receives one Air Asset Point [represents a detachment of fighter and bomber aircraft]. If this event is rolled again, one previously eliminated White Air AP returns to the game (Major Bandy may be only intermittently effective against the enemy, but he is effectively immortal).
This was a sort of in-joke, a homage to the hours I've spent reading the books by Canadian writer Donald Jack detailing the adventures of his fictional character Bandy, who is a sort of anti-Biggles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggles).
Yesterday I get an email from someone I have never heard of, asking if the game really does feature Bartholomew Bandy. I say yes, and describe how, thinking that this is from a fan. Well it was, kind of, for next I get this:
Hi,
Sounds like a neat game (I've always enjoyed war games, whenever I've been able to find anyone to play against).
The reason I ask is that I'm in charge of looking after some of the literary and other rights for the Bandy books on behalf of Jack's literary estate, and since Bandy is a fictional creation of Donald Jack, and is protected by copyright, we would need to come to some sort of agreement with regards to the use of the character before any commercial use could be made of him in games or other merchandise.
I realize the game is pretty far along in production, and that the use of the Bandy character was motivated by an appreciation for the books rather than from any desire to exploit them, so I don't wish to pose any undue obstacles to the game's development and sale; however we would need to come to a formal agreement of permission, and the games would need to be accompanied by some form of acknowledgement of the ownership of the character, and of the granting of permission.
Regards,
[guy]
Seriously, WTF - I can't incorporate the name of a fictional character into my own fictional narrative? Good job I didn't have Godzilla show up, then I'd have to tussle with Toho Studios....
So I play along, we talk about text and finally he sends me this:
Hi,
Here's the acknowledgement text for Konarmiya:
"The character "Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy" is a trademark of the Estate of Donald Jack ©2005. The character name "Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy" has been used in the game Konarmiya with the permission of [guy's company I won't plug]. For more information on Donald Jack's Bartholomew Bandy novels, see [website of guy's company I won't plug]."
I'll send along a formal agreement once I get the text prepared. The gist of it will be that you can have a non-exclusive use of the name Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy in the game, restricted to the appearance in the paragraph that you cited, and that in return you will include the above acknowledgement in each copy of the game, and will send one copy of the finished game to us upon publication.
That tore it. In exchange for permission to do my tiny pathetic little homage, this guy wants not only a free plug for his business, he wants a free copy of my game (MSRP US$22.95)?
I talked it over with my publisher, we made a small change, and I sent him this:
"You know what? Never mind.
It's not worth it. It was a feeble in-joke that few would "get" anyway.
I have rewritten the random events chart so that Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy now does not appear anywhere in the design.
Winston Churchill still does, but he was a real person so I don't need to get anyone's permission to use his name.
There is now no conflict with the literary estate of Donald Jack.
Thank you."
Yeah, yeah - I know enough about copyright to know that it's important, but I also have a sense of proportion. For somebody to have tracked such a well-intentioned yet feeble gesture down in an obscure corner of the Web (just shows how far Google reaches) and then made a fuss about it, is an even greater waste than the time I spent sticking a reference to this character in the game in the first place.
Sheesh!
Hey, watch the Comments section - maybe I'll get a Cease and Desist order or something like that.
The game is called Konarmiya and is about the Russo-Polish War of 1920. It matches up and can be played with another game I've done called Freikorps, an alternate-history design predicated on the idea that the Soviets won a game of the former and decide to march on Berlin in the latter.
Anyway, part of what I like to do in these games is throw in random events to tweak things a little one way or the other for players. In Konarmiya I had the following random event possibly occur:
Event 66 - It's Him Again. RAF Major Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy, of Beamington, Ontario, is dispatched with his squadron by Winston Churchill (then Secretary of State for War and Air) to aid the Poles in their crusade against Bolshevism. The White player receives one Air Asset Point [represents a detachment of fighter and bomber aircraft]. If this event is rolled again, one previously eliminated White Air AP returns to the game (Major Bandy may be only intermittently effective against the enemy, but he is effectively immortal).
This was a sort of in-joke, a homage to the hours I've spent reading the books by Canadian writer Donald Jack detailing the adventures of his fictional character Bandy, who is a sort of anti-Biggles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggles).
Yesterday I get an email from someone I have never heard of, asking if the game really does feature Bartholomew Bandy. I say yes, and describe how, thinking that this is from a fan. Well it was, kind of, for next I get this:
Hi,
Sounds like a neat game (I've always enjoyed war games, whenever I've been able to find anyone to play against).
The reason I ask is that I'm in charge of looking after some of the literary and other rights for the Bandy books on behalf of Jack's literary estate, and since Bandy is a fictional creation of Donald Jack, and is protected by copyright, we would need to come to some sort of agreement with regards to the use of the character before any commercial use could be made of him in games or other merchandise.
I realize the game is pretty far along in production, and that the use of the Bandy character was motivated by an appreciation for the books rather than from any desire to exploit them, so I don't wish to pose any undue obstacles to the game's development and sale; however we would need to come to a formal agreement of permission, and the games would need to be accompanied by some form of acknowledgement of the ownership of the character, and of the granting of permission.
Regards,
[guy]
Seriously, WTF - I can't incorporate the name of a fictional character into my own fictional narrative? Good job I didn't have Godzilla show up, then I'd have to tussle with Toho Studios....
So I play along, we talk about text and finally he sends me this:
Hi,
Here's the acknowledgement text for Konarmiya:
"The character "Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy" is a trademark of the Estate of Donald Jack ©2005. The character name "Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy" has been used in the game Konarmiya with the permission of [guy's company I won't plug]. For more information on Donald Jack's Bartholomew Bandy novels, see [website of guy's company I won't plug]."
I'll send along a formal agreement once I get the text prepared. The gist of it will be that you can have a non-exclusive use of the name Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy in the game, restricted to the appearance in the paragraph that you cited, and that in return you will include the above acknowledgement in each copy of the game, and will send one copy of the finished game to us upon publication.
That tore it. In exchange for permission to do my tiny pathetic little homage, this guy wants not only a free plug for his business, he wants a free copy of my game (MSRP US$22.95)?
I talked it over with my publisher, we made a small change, and I sent him this:
"You know what? Never mind.
It's not worth it. It was a feeble in-joke that few would "get" anyway.
I have rewritten the random events chart so that Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy now does not appear anywhere in the design.
Winston Churchill still does, but he was a real person so I don't need to get anyone's permission to use his name.
There is now no conflict with the literary estate of Donald Jack.
Thank you."
Yeah, yeah - I know enough about copyright to know that it's important, but I also have a sense of proportion. For somebody to have tracked such a well-intentioned yet feeble gesture down in an obscure corner of the Web (just shows how far Google reaches) and then made a fuss about it, is an even greater waste than the time I spent sticking a reference to this character in the game in the first place.
Sheesh!
Hey, watch the Comments section - maybe I'll get a Cease and Desist order or something like that.
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well done!
Date: 2008-07-27 07:57 pm (UTC)Re: well done!
Date: 2008-07-27 10:13 pm (UTC)I thought this guy should have understood what I'd done for what it was, but noooo... so from now own, I'll invent my own fictitious comic characters. The books are not that funny anyway, and I would guess are mostly unknown outside of Canada, but B. W. B*n*y was the right kind of character in the right kind of situation, so he might have shown up.
I considered throwing Captain Biggles in, for the author of those books died in 1968, but there's still another 30 years before the copyright expires in the character.
Again, if I'd invoked "parodic puposes" I probably would have been in the clear under present legislation, but try to do something positive and see what happens!