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Taken from Talkbloodbowl (Note: I am not the webmaster, I have only copy pasted this as news):

TalkBloodBowl wrote:
Good evening everybody,

Today I received a letter from the Games Workshop Group PLC stating that if I didn't compy with 4 directives within 14 days they would take formal proceedings against me. It saddens me to see GW take such action against a perfectly legitamate fan site that has provided a global communications portal for BB fans, with no intention of conning them out of the millions they make in sales. I feel that I have been stereotypically branded as an Internet con-man. I have been a GW fan for 20+ years and this site has been active for almost 9 of that 20. This site has also had GW staff registered and actively contribute to its content (it may still have).

The assumptions from GWG PLC are that I am making a profit from the donations received by this site. They also point out that consumers may believe TalkBB is connected with GW and the fact the domain name includes Bloodbowl which is an infringement of GW's registered trademark. Now, I am not against their need to ensure their trademarks are not used inappropriately, I feel they could have approached me in a more friendly manner to investigte the purpose of the site and discover that I only wanted to provide a hub for dicussing Blood Bowl globally. instead, they immediately enter heavy handed.

If they truely believe the donations have contributed to me becoming a wealthy person or that I have made enough money to give up a proper job they are sadly mistaken. The small amount of money donated has gone to pay for the upkeep of the server (when I used my own hardware and hosted it at home) or towards the costs for hosting with an ISP. In short I have been vastly out of pocket to provide TalkBB rather than the other way around. I thank all those that have contributed as it has helped TalkBB survive.

I have been asked to:

Immediately cease and desist from any activity which infringes GW's intellectual property.
either remove remove your website or the reference to 'Blood Bowl' in your website name.
Remove the donations button from the page.
Confirm by return that you will not infringe GW's intellectual properly rights at any time in the future.

Now, I could simply remove Bloodbowl from the domain by renaming it to TalkBB.com, but that means buying a new domain and time spent sorting everything out. Bearing in mind I hardly visit TalkBloodBowl.com anyway, I can't really be bothered with all that so have decided to let it die. Therefore from Sunday 8 November 2009 www.talkbloodbowl.com will cease to exist.

Should anybody wish to take ownership of the source and contents I will be more than happy to prepare it for transfer, although this will not include the domain name. I will also have to ensure the recipient will not use DB content for anything other than to maintain the forum as part of an existing Blood Bowl site. This is to ensure passwords and emails do not fall into the wrong hands.

Thank you for your support over the years and for making TalkBloodBowl.com what it is today. Without you all it would have died all by itself many years ago, regardless of donations.

Regards,
JohnnyP

I haven't even heard of this 'TalkBloodBowl'.

Poorly played, GW. Especially when you have no real case whatsoever: fair use allows for review of a product.

Can't say I've heard of it. Irritates me GW is doing it again though.

That's the thing of the 4 items, the last 2 are simply scare tactics and hold no legal relevance to the case.

The first two presuppose that the guy is making money (which can easily be proven is not the case) and is publishing GW material that they could be making money from.

This is bogus because the Living Rulebook is published free (with the rules council volunteers reviewing rules for the next LRB edition available to the public free as well).

All in all its deserving of letters of complaint to GW and at least my (and a ton of other people that I am aware of) boycotting them.

Cheese Elemental wrote:I haven't even heard of this 'TalkBloodBowl'.

And now you never will.

Good on you GW. Bring these bastards down. That'll teach 'em. This guys been getting away with IP theft for nine years? Won't somebody think of the children?

Ummm, question, if you believe they have no legal case (hopefully you have done the research) why are you caving in? Do you seriously think GW will spend the 100s of thousands to lose a case against a legitimate fan site?

Chapterhouse wrote:Ummm, question, if you believe they have no legal case (hopefully you have done the research) why are you caving in? Do you seriously think GW will spend the 100s of thousands to lose a case against a legitimate fan site?

It won't take that much and yes they will


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wonder when they are going to start to come after Warseer, BoLs and Dakka?

GW and their mystery attitudes about dealing with their customers.

That sucks man, I understand that although you may be in the right on this one, it's just not worth the hassle.

pixelgeek wrote:

Chapterhouse wrote:Ummm, question, if you believe they have no legal case (hopefully you have done the research) why are you caving in? Do you seriously think GW will spend the 100s of thousands to lose a case against a legitimate fan site?

It won't take that much and yes they will


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wonder when they are going to start to come after Warseer, BoLs and Dakka?

I beg to differ, they cannot selectively prosecute one site and let others go, this leads to a legal precedent not in favor of GW.

'Tis very sad, Gw screw their own people yet again.......

Chapterhouse wrote:I beg to differ, they cannot selectively prosecute one site and let others go, this leads to a legal precedent not in favor of GW.

What planet are you living on where lawyers only threaten legal action if and only if they have a valid case?

This industry, and most others, is rife with examples of large companies threatening legal action against private individuals and small companies in which they do not have a valid case but in which they threaten to sue to stop purported illegal usage of IP or copyrights.

You are right that they can't do this but clearly we are seeing this happen so they do in fact do it.

Not having legal justification for something has never stopped a company from doing this sort of thing.

Do a Google/wiki search for SLAAP lawsuits for a nice primer on the corporate history of this

I beg to differ, they cannot selectively prosecute one site and let others go, this leads to a legal precedent not in favor of GW.

As the man says.
If you want examples or if you want to find out how to do to avoid it you might want to check out and talk with the owner of bolter and chainsword. The site uses GW terminology, GW art depictions and GW art in online software, receives donations (as you said you do and that GW busted you for amongst the mentioned things) as well as indirectly makes money of GW IP.

So yes, precedences can be quite valid here, especially without any formal license steering away from them.

Hopefully someone else will take up maintenance of it. It wouldn't be too hard to have a redirect page at the original url, and just change over to another site, if they wanted to keep it going. And I guess remove the paypal button and just have another, more informal way to receive donations.

Yes the take over part is fine and to be expected. The sad part is in the nature that they treat the loyal fan base. In this case its enough for someone to not give a damn anymore and let 9 years of community support go.

True,

I guess it would be a slap in the face, especially if what he is saying is true and he puts money into the site and barely make even.

Still I do not think any of us are surprised at GWs self-destructive methodology.

I wonder if the site was thought to cater to "tourney players".....

totally not suprised. GW will raze any fansite to the ground without even a thought. this seems to be the mindset of the GW juggernaught.

If they come over Dakka, I will gladly volunteer my dirty fighting skills to the cause. I make a mean flaming bag of dog poop.

Chapterhouse wrote:I beg to differ, they cannot selectively prosecute one site and let others go, this leads to a legal precedent not in favor of GW.

After reading through the Legal section of GW's website I suspect that the issue is simply that he has Blood Bowl in the site name and the domain name.

Bolter and Chainsword, Dakka and BoLS don't use GW IP in their names or domains and I don't think that Warseer is a GW trademark.

I also suspect that if he had changed his domain as NAF recently did then GW legal might have left him alone.

I suspect that he is already aware of what he could "simply" do. Its the fact that he cannot be bothered, and the fact that its been a hub for 9 years with GW support at stages, that simply being polite has gone out the window. The pervasive attitude of big angry threats that seems to be the norm is something that isn't worth investing in. The fact that the whole thing is almost baseless except for them contesting the domain name which is disputable at best, and filled with empty threats. I mean what part of the law requires you to write somebody a letter telling them that you've done as they've requested? Tell them to go sod themselves with a deckchair sideways if they think they can enforce that kind of requirement on a domain owner.

Poor form GW.

Well its sad but this isnt the first or the last time its happened. but in response its the last time i'll buy any of GW's BB products.
I Call Shame!

Once again GW corporate tries to kill its fans without understanding the company is a HOBBY COMPANY and people play their games for years even if said game has barely any support

What the hell is being gained by protecting an IP that barely makes any money and is for the most part free? When the person "infringing" ALSO isnt making any money

Hell I can "make" money off GW by buying low and selling high on ebay

Once again, GW desperately tries to bury every single trace of the Specialist Games experiment. Meanwhile sites like 40K Online and 40K Radio continue unmolested... for now.

Once again, GW fails to impress.

Does the GW legal department run independently from the corporate entity? It could just be that they had some spare time on their hands.

Either way, dick move.

but he's not infringing their IP, and they can't make him remove the donations button when that helps him keep the site up.

Three cheers for those brave flying monkeys at GW legal and their dark hearted masters.

So guys - how long until MDG comes in here and gets all apologetic on our asses?