#community use projects

[officialpaizo]

I'm running a Hell's Rebels game, is it OK if I post a log of my sessions here on tumblr?

Please do! You might want to make sure that you follow the terms of our Community Use Policy (http://paizo.com/paizo/about/communityuse), though, which will give you a bunch of images you can use.

[officialpaizo]

Have you checked out the ENnie Award-winning Pathfinder fanzine, Wayfinder? WHY NOT?! It’s free!

[officialpaizo]

What are the rules for use of Paizo material in fan works? For example, if I wanted to make a campaign I played in into a webcomic or other kind of series (that was an original story but set in Golarion), what kinds of restrictions are there?

You’re in luck—the Community Use Policy (CUP) was created to handle just these sorts of situations and projects. What the policy allows you to do, provided you post all the required language and text, is use our setting and product identity to create your own free, non-commercial, non-profit fan work: comics, stories, all those sorts of things. A great example of existing CUP projects include: the Wayfinder fanzine, PathfinderWiki, and Archives of Nethys.

If you’ve got specific questions, send them along to [email protected]—we’d be happy to answer them.

[officialpaizo]

Hi, I was going to start a webcomic soon based on a pathfinder game I was in, but I'm worried about using any copyrighted material, especially if I get an opportunity to earn money from the comic through ad revenue someday. I'm not very familiar with copyright laws, and the section about it on the paizo website was still a bit unclear for me. Is there any useful information you might be able to give me about this, or would you be able to point me towards someone who could help? Thanks!

Okay, time to put on my educatin’ hat. (Caveat: I Am Not A Lawyer.)

So, there are two big things that you want to consider regarding any sort of project based off of Pathfinder—whether you want to make money at it, or if you just want to create a personal project using our materials.

The latter is covered under the Community Use Project, which allows you to use a lot of what we consider our intellectual property in your free, non-commercial project. What do we consider our intellectual property? Proper names, depictions of NPCs, monsters, holy symbols, our iconics, our world setting, our maps—just to start. The Community Use Project specifically prohibits you “from charging you to use or access this content.”

Would this allow you to create a webcomic based on your Pathfinder game that people could read freely? Absolutely, with the caveats contained in the Community Use Policy.

Would this allow you to create a compilation of your comics in a printed or digital form that people paid money for? No.

Would this allow you to collect ad revenue for your free webcomic (or set up a tip jar or Patreon project)? Answer hazy—please contact [email protected].

Most people wishing to make money on a Pathfinder-related project operate under the Pathfinder Compatibility License, which is built off of the Open Game License, though most of these folks use them to create new Pathfinder Roleplaying Game supplements rather than a webcomic.

Trivia Time: You’ll note that many of our Pathfinder Tales novels do not call tieflings such as Radovan…well, tieflings. That’s because “tiefling” is a term covered under the Open Game License, and if we wanted to refer to them by that name, we would be required to supply a copy of the Open Game License with the novel. Or the miniatures. Or or or. So Radovan is called “hellspawn” instead.

For the final word on what you can and cannot do with either the Community Use Project or the Pathfinder Compatibility License, send us an email to [email protected]—we are happy to answer questions that you might have. But also remember that this is no substitute for a consultation with a lawyer specializing in copyright law, and if you want to pursue something commercially (”for profit”), I would recommend covering your bases and talking with one.

[officialpaizo]

Saw a post going around about writing for game studios, and it reminded me of a question: is there anything I'd need to be careful of if writing my own pathfinder-related material and putting it online (for free; perhaps with a non-commercial share-alike creative commons)? Don't want to step on any copyrights or anything.

Everything you need to know on this topic is in one of two places: The Pathfinder Compatibility License or the Community Use Policy. The former is designed for publishers and creators to use the ruleset for commercial purposes (and not product identity like our world setting of Golarion). The latter is geared towards those that want to create fan sites, campaign journal sites, and similar non-profit projects.

Email us at [email protected] if you’ve got more questions like this!