Do you ever witness something that really upsets and offends you, but you can't muster the fury necessary for a crusade?
Like, I'm very bothered by the new Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast policy on fan content. It basically says that any fan content you create, in any medium, must be completely free for anyone to use, without giving you credit. You also can't accept payment (like... commissions?) for it, though you can place advertisements on it for third-party revenue, or accept donations unrelated to the content being created so long as everything you make is free for non-donors as well.
What this ultimately means is that all those D&D character drawings I see on my feed all day... I could just take them. I could remove the signature or water mark, and use them however I like. Which is so deeply fucked up. And it upsets me, because I think it's seriously unfair to artists to create a legal loophole for people to steal their work. Or for that matter, writers, podcasters, indie film makers, all of that. Any fan created content is up for grabs, and it's stupid.
People can get around these rules simply by never associating anything they create with D&D. Instead call it "fantasy rpgs" or something like that. Don't say tiefling, say half-demon, and such. So, it's circumventable, but intensely frustrating, and many creators aren't even aware of it. I keep sending messages to folks to let them know, and so far they're all totally in the dark.
When I found out, my first thought was to try to popularize a "don't say D&D" tag to try to help people keep from being taken for a ride by this dumb policy, but then I thought... children are murdering each other with assault weapons...? People of color are being systematically harassed and killed by police...? Trans people are being denied basic respect in essentially every aspect of their lives...? Women are having their reproductive decisions made for them by legislators, most of them men, who often don't even believe in the policies themselves and are just doing it to rile up a political base that they need to support them for reelection...? There are just so many other fucked up things for me to focus on, I don't have the ability to add this to the list.
So, this is it. My one original post on Hasbro/WotC and their shit policy that is going to fuck over a bunch of artists, and could even lead to lawsuits if (heaven forbid) one ignorant creator manages to make something big enough to pop up on their radar. I'll reblog shit I see about this, but there hasn't been much. I might keep sending messages to creators I see, as I'm able. And I can probably answer questions for folks who haven't heard about this yet.
Read the policy yourself, if you like: http://company.wizards.com/fancontentpolicy
Wizards has made statements to alleviate some of the concerns, but to be honest I haven't been satisfied with them. They basically amount to "we (WotC) don't intend to screw any creators over," but they totally ignore the fact that their policy allows other people to screw creators over and get off scott free.
Anyhow, they also said that they'll be reviewing and adjusting the policy as needed, so hopefully they clean the language up a bit and fix those loopholes. For the time being though, I urge you, Don't Say D&D.
