42
votes
5etools repository taken down after DMCA request by Wizards of the Coast
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- dmca/2024/08/2024-08-07-wizards-of-the-coast.md at master · github/dmca
- Authors
- github
- Word count
- 441 words
Wizards is about to make sure you pay rent to access their inferior product.
We desperately need an online git forge that's truly decentralized and impossible to even issue DMCA requests to, let alone force the removal of source code. Then these greedy companies can just get fucked and seethe when fans of their products create their own (free, mind you) community projects.
Like, I seriously cannot imagine how terrible of a person you have to be to simultaneously have enough authority at Wizards to make this DMCA takedown happen and actually feel like taking 5etools down is in any way a sane and smart thing for the business to do.
Then again, if Nintendo is anything to go by, companies can burn as many bridges and fuck over as much of their community as they want, and people will still keep giving them money.
Copyright's sole remaining purpose in the twenty-first century is to ensure you keep paying your rent to the corporations while they abuse everything you create to pay their shareholders. Piracy is the only ethical means of consumption.
I don't fully understand where you're coming from here. WOTC created content. 5e tools is a repository where you can use that content without paying WOTC, in competition with their own online tool (DND beyond). What's morally objectionable here about a takedown notice?
There's two kinds of content in an RPG system, and creators only have the kind of protections you're describing on one of them. There's the mechanics of the game, and the setting. Hasbro has the right to protect the setting, but 5etools isn't sharing that part.
I don't think that's accurate - If you go to 5e.tools (is that not the right website?) the second section down is what appears to be complete copies of every sourcebook.
https://5e.tools/adventures.html
Oh, yeah. Teach me not to read more deeply into it. If they're distributing the sourcebooks of course they'd be smacked down. Now I'm wondering why it's even news?
Redistributing the source and slapping ads over it? That's trashy.
As someone who used to be big into D&D, and who has published a TTRPG, what was 5E tools and how does it square with this bit from the takedown:
In my experience, copyright covers specific elements of the mechanics of a system as well as specifics of the setting. Part of the challenge of creating a new TTRPG is doing a reasonable check of your terminology describing your system mechanics to make sure it isn't too close in form and function to a copyrighted system.
But that doesn't even seem relevant here, if indeed the repos mostly held their published works, and not just open SRG content.
Game mechanics are uncopyrightable. You can copyright your description of the mechanics, and any associated flavor, but the mechanics themselves can't be copyrighted.
If 5etools had stuck to just statblocks, with no descriptions, they would have been legally in the right here. That said, what they were doing was so obviously copyright infringement that I'm surprised it took WotC this long to take it down.
In a game like sorry, where the mechanics are role dice, perform basic instructions, the distinction that the mechanics aren't copyrightable is maybe helpful. But when taking about the form and function of a mechanic in a TTRPG the description and language of the mechanic is so essential to the flavor of the game, that the form and function is hard to separate from the description. Sure, rolling a D20 isn't protected. But rolling a specific skill with a specific set of descriptions, actions, and names is. And that is what can be difficult to check when creating a new TTRPG.
5etools was much easier to search through and reference than the official rulebooks. I know this because I also own the rulebooks and still preferred 5etools during my sessions.
They are probably within their rights to take it down, but it is penny wise and pound foolish unless they are selling an equally capable product. People who want to pirate the rulebooks will just turn to PDF copies instead.
I would argue that if you own a copy of the PHB, DMG, and MM, you should be able to create tools for an online campaign that reflect those purchased, owned resources; you should not need to use the WotC-brand online service, same as you can use self-drafted maps and character sheets based on 5e for in-person games instead of using the official materials. Where it gets fiddly is IP and whether, as another user stated, proprietary sources are being shared to people who don't own them.
I'm interested in how this will impact vTTRPG games and players. There will be a subset of users who will move to DnD Beyond, but knowing gamers (being a gamer with an online campaign myself), I think a lot of people will either modify their vTTRPG campaigns to utilize other systems, or will develop their own tools to keep things rolling. There was a lot of backlash when WotC proposed the changes to the licensing for creators last year (I think it was last year?) It prompted a lot of publishers and creators to start drafting their own systems. Several of my friends moved their vTTRPG games to P2E afterwards. And now there is a wealth of competition from places like Kobold Press, MCDM, Critical Role, etc. DnD has the benefit of legacy and brand knowledge - by now, it's a household name. While WotC is within their rights to do this, it doesn't foster good will with the player base, and they're already on kinda shaky ground as it is. People are free to use other resources as they will, or to pay for the resources WotC makes available, and I will be interested to see what players decide to do. We'll see how it shakes out.
The campaign I'm part of is going through the same process you mentioned. P2E is looking more and more welcoming with every decision wotc makes.
I should have included this when I originally posted, but I would like to draw attention to Archives of Nethys, an online database of Starfinder and Pathfinder (first and second edition) content. AoN is basically the Pathfinder version of 5etools.
Except, AoN operates with the explicit permission and encouragement of Paizo, who even sends AoN pre-release game materials to make sure their database is up-to-date as soon as new books come out.
Really is quite the contrast from Wizards of the Coast's behavior, isn't it?
I want to point out that Level Up Advanced Fifth Edition does the same/similar with their 5th edition compatible material at a5e.tools. I have heard the site/domain was entirely coincidental.
I'm not sure if Kobold Press has anything similar for Tales of the Valiant. They might have something or will have something available on Demiplane?
I'm currently travelling so I can't find the answer easily, but what is the implication of this? Thankfully it seems like the main site is still up, which I use constantly.
I guess it's a good thing my box for Cyberpunk 2077 Edge runners edition came in already, might be nice to learn a new system.
The mirrors going down breaks some integrations they had with Roll20 and Plutonium, and anyone who was developing their own homebrew content using the mirror site will need to export their content before the cached version of the mirror site in their browser is wiped.
The main site is still up, and copies of the source code from the latest release still exist on the Internet (check GitLab). However, if no new official repository for the source code becomes available, self-hosting new versions of the site past version 1.209.3 might become impossible.