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I recently sent GW an E-mail regarding their action about vassal40k, and I encourage everyone reading this to do the same.
The only way to let them know what we think is to LET THEM KNOW WHAT WE THINK!
One of us might not change everything, But all of might change something.

Below is a copy of the E-mail I sent, though I think many of us could send a very similar if not identical E-mail without it being dishonest.

Dear Games Workshop,
First let me say I have been a loyal customer to you for my entire hobby career. You have made over $200 of my hard-earned money in the last month alone, either by online purchases or by purchases at local stores. This letter is in regard to your recent legal action in response to a program known as Vassal 40k. Your company recently sent them a cease and desist letter, and in response they are going to remove all Games Workshop Intellectual Property from their website. I believe this is a mistake on your part. I understand your desire for your Intellectual Property to remain your Intellectual Property, and you are simply trying to do what is best for your company. It is my belief that what is best for the company is also best for the consumer, however, I believe Vassal 40k is beneficial to your company. Allow me to tell you a story. I have been into the Warhammer 40k universe for quite a long time. I bought several Black Library books and loved them, I read a good piece of the miniature game rulebook and many of the codices, but I was not ready to spend any large portion of money on the hobby. That was, until I heard of Vassal 40k. I downloaded all the required software and modules, and began playing online. It was not a month later that I spent over 60 dollars on your website on models, paints, and tools. I have been a loyal customer ever since, and I am not the only one. I know of several people that I met over vassal saying they own models or plan to purchase some, and either want to simply test their army out before buying them, or want practice with their army. Vassal 40k is not stealing your Intellectual Property, it is an advertising tool for you. If it were up to me I would encourage this sort of advertising, you've made more money off of me alone than they ever could have cost you. I encourage you to reconsider your decision and retract your cease and desist letter.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXX

Vassal only captures the game element of 40k. The real experience with the armies is collecting, modelling and painting them. You do not connect to the army in vassal at all. However, its great for trying out tactics, or, most importantly for me, playing against friends that are too far away to meet with.

Besides, vassal doesnt have any rules, so you still need the rule book and codex to play. I highly doubt that people who arnt already shelling out a ton of money (or as much as they can for kids) on GW products are going to know about vassal.

It's also a good tool for making battle reports.

This is a losing battle, the Vassal 40k creator even said he was planning to stop updating the mod shortly.

It's the principle of the thing. GW is making a mistake and they should know it.

If you want GW to listen, write an honest-to-God letter (like, on paper); don't just send an email. Any punk can send an email, but when you take the time and effort to write a letter people tend to take it more seriously (some of the GW developers have actually said this, I'm not making it up).

Same thing applies to writing to your Congressmen.

Good idea. Will do.

I actually agrre with there idea of closing vassel.
It was infringing on there ip.
BUT I WILL REITERATE. ITS ONLY A BIG DEAL IF YOU PAID FOR VASSEL.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
But i did send the email to see there reply.

but is infringing on their IP a bad thing for the company? Did they lose money or business on it? No. They GAINED both of those things, it's essentially both free advertising, and a tool to make the hobby more enjoyable. Both of which GW benefits from.

Disclaimer - I Am Not A Lawyer. I just read a lot of Slashdot posts and posts here by people who are lawyers.

The problem with intellectual property (IP from here on out) is that if you don't defend it against every infringement, you start to lose your control over said IP. Basically (and someone, PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong!), the courts view IP as something that is only valuable if you defend it. If you stop defending it, then you don't see it as valuable, so there's no harm in someone else using it.

i think thats kinda wrong, IP is at all times the property of the owner, but, if you don't get up in arms when someone else uses your IP then it could be argued as silent concent, that said, once the IP is copyrighted, then it becomes legal property and from then on it is illegal for someone else to use it without written consent..fairly sure that's right, someone speak up if not

The trouble with IP is that in court if you cannot prove you have taken every effort to defend your IP in the past then the judge is unlikely to side with you when a serious ip infringement case pops up, you cant let things like vassal slide in case a major rip off occurs any time soon.

They could just slap vassal with a cease and desist, and then once they have, give them the written consent...

Job done.



Precedent would probably still be bad enough, but hey.

Holy crapbaskets, this is just ridiculous. Although, silver lining and all that, it's very nice of GW to do things like this to help me get my addiction under control.