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Hello all...just a rant with a question at the end.

I have been looking for a while now for a set of Ork datacards at a nice low price. Good luck with that, right? This morning I Perused GW's website I see the Necron datacards are sold out, presumably forever. Aaaaand...guess what? There are plenty of them now available on ebay...for $30 or more.

Yea, I get it. It's a free market, and those folks who were clever or quick enough to score some of them "deserve" their $18 profit per deck.

But I have found a nice site that will let you design your own card decks, with your own art, and charge $12 for 1 deck, with no setup fee.

My question to Dakka is this: Is it ethical to print your own cards with the GW's rules but with custom design?

Can you PM me the site? I'd like to build some for SoB's AoF -- something that GW never produced.

OT: The actual verbage for the datacards is in the codex right? You are just making a quick reference in card format. Hell, you could write the info on an index card to keep track if you wanted to... you aren't selling, so whats the issue?

Datacards are just info from the codex, yes? So if you have the codex, I don't see what the issue is.

It's like objective markers. GW sells those servo-skull objectives markers, but there's nothing unethical about making some of your own or using something made by another company.

It's ethical if the damn cards are all but required for maelstrom missions (using that chart and keeping track of finished or discarded missions is hell), but GW makes them a limited release.

I could understand doing small print runs as needed, but a single limited run? Suck.

Just do it.

Fair use. If you type up/design your own cards with GW's rules on them and don't charge people money for them it's neither immoral nor illegal.

It does seem to be the best solution, even if it takes a few hours to design them. The only downside I see is the 7 psyker cards would be the same size and have the same back as the 36 objective cards.

I'm surprised I hadn't heard of other people doing this.

The upside is you could Orkify all 36 cards, not just the first 6. something like "Go sit on objektive #5, you git. If you get bored you can take a krap on it."

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Fair use.

Err, no, this is absolutely NOT true. "Fair use" does not mean "I think it's fair to do this", it's a specific exception to copyright rules. And it does not include things like "I couldn't buy GW's limited-edition product so I have to use their IP". The actual situation:

Making your own cards with functionally identical but not copy/pasted rules: 100% legal. Game rules can't be copyrighted, so a card with "objective #4" on it is perfectly fine. Copyright would only apply if you used the same rules text as GW, since even though the rule itself isn't copyrighted the text GW used to describe it is. Also, note that this would include selling your cards, putting them up for people to download, etc.

Making your own cards with GW's rule text for personal use: who cares if it's legal, nobody is even going to consider taking legal action against you. GW's legal department might be a bunch of abusive TFGs, but they aren't quite stupid enough to waste money on something so trivial.

Making your own cards with GW's rule text for sale/distribution or paying someone to make your cards with GW's rule text: illegal, and GW's lawyers will have an easy case against you if they find out and care enough to take action against you.

 Peregrine wrote:
Making your own cards with functionally identical but not copy/pasted rules: 100% legal. Game rules can't be copyrighted, so a card with "objective #4" on it is perfectly fine. Copyright would only apply if you used the same rules text as GW, since even though the rule itself isn't copyrighted the text GW used to describe it is. Also, note that this would include selling your cards, putting them up for people to download, etc.

If this is true, then I could post my 100% Orkified deck here on Dakka (and elsewhere) with full instructions on how to get them printed for the $12? Sounds too good to be true.

Go for it.

Like it's been said, if you are making cards that are - for all intents and purposes - a faster reference to existing (and paid for) material you posses...then you are fine. Even if you give away the artwork and verbage, still fine.

GW is stupid, but they aren't *that* stupid. There is zero money in engaging someone over personal use cards. The cost to send a C&D is pretty low. The cost of that person answering and challenging in court? Waaaaaaaaaaay more than you could ever get on an IP infringement for personal use.


Edit: OP Delvers (thanks!)