How is this legal?

[rolypoly]

So basically people are just recreating board games inside of this game? Like wholesale entire games, with all the same art and everything? How can this possibly be allowed? I even saw some workshop items for WH40K, and GamesWorkshop is very litigious about abuse of their IP. How has this game not been sued into oblivion yet?

[Baryonyx]

This topic comes up once in a while, read here for some answers to your questions:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/286160/discussions/0/1474221865201221416/

[kmart shopper]

there are no laws in a simulator

[Heikai]

Yeah it's kind of crazy and I even heard that the revenue split for the official mods is very bad also. Worse than the industry standard and this is after Valve has taken its own cut.

[Kitrin]

If anything, it also promotes people to own the REAL game because alot of the games I've played are way more fun in person and to own the game! I just did this with the Pokemon Master Trainer game and found one on E-bay to pick up!

[Haplo]

Let's say I handcarved and painted everything about some boardgame and playing it with my friends, is that illegal? I'm not branding or selling it.

If doing that isn't illegal, then doing that in virtual space also shouldn't be illegal.

If doing that is illegal, then every drawing, sketching, painting, printing, 3D models and handmade figurines that is not "original" are straight illegal.

[Canyon]

who cares? you aren't gonna get sued. these million dollar companies arent gonna go out of business because you played virtual monopoly

[Baryonyx]

Originally posted by Haplo:

Let's say I handcarved and painted everything about some boardgame and playing it with my friends, is that illegal? I'm not branding or selling it.

That is pretty much the point, the illegality comes up when you share it, and especially try to sell it. You can do whatever you want in your home and in some cases even share with your friends and family. But sharing to the broad public is where the companies' alarms will go off.

Originally posted by Canyon:

who cares? you aren't gonna get sued. these million dollar companies arent gonna go out of business because you played virtual monopoly

Unless you start to earn serious money from it, i.e. take money away from the person who owns the business related to that product, no.

[SaltyO]

Originally posted by rolypoly:

So basically people are just recreating board games inside of this game? Like wholesale entire games, with all the same art and everything? How can this possibly be allowed? I even saw some workshop items for WH40K, and GamesWorkshop is very litigious about abuse of their IP. How has this game not been sued into oblivion yet?

This has been discussed a lot, you might search the forums to read more about it.
Also, you just described Youtube, and much of the internet in general. We know GW is very litigious. Good for them.

[rolypoly]

Don't misunderstand me. I'm asking because I don't want to buy this game and find out later that they got sued to hell and its not available any more.

[Baryonyx]

Don't worry about that. Unless legislation gravely changes, that won't happen.

[SaltyO]

If Berserk can be sued, so then can most companies currently in the business of exhibiting content on the internet. In fact, the internet would cease to work. As Baryonyx said, it would take a massive cartel punch to net neutrality to do this. Thankfully the man who had no problem with handing total control of content to ISPs and such is now no longer in charge. :D

[Zild]

It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of companies are turning a blind eye to this right now anyway. Take GW, for example - they released WH40K 9th edition in the middle of a global pandemic with strict lockdowns in many countries, making it very hard for a lot of customers to meet up and play. If people play instead on TTS then at least they might get a few book sales, as well as keeping people interested so that they might buy models when (if) the world ever gets back to normal.

It wouldn't surprise me if they took action in future, once people can play in person again...

[Kekis]

Originally posted by Baryonyx:

Originally posted by Haplo:

Let's say I handcarved and painted everything about some boardgame and playing it with my friends, is that illegal? I'm not branding or selling it.

That is pretty much the point, the illegality comes up when you share it, and especially try to sell it. You can do whatever you want in your home and in some cases even share with your friends and family. But sharing to the broad public is where the companies' alarms will go off.

Originally posted by Canyon:

who cares? you aren't gonna get sued. these million dollar companies arent gonna go out of business because you played virtual monopoly

Unless you start to earn serious money from it, i.e. take money away from the person who owns the business related to that product, no.

Nobody is selling anything, addons are free. Mod support does not infringe copyright because it isn't the developer's fault, as he is not selling or earning money with it.

[Baryonyx]

Originally posted by Kekis:

Nobody is selling anything, addons are free.

Yes, that was my point.

Originally posted by Kekis:

Mod support does not infringe copyright because it isn't the developer's fault, as he is not selling or earning money with it.

It is not the game dev's fault, but the fault of those who post the mods. And they can be held accountable for the act of publishing their mod. But a DMCA is the most that is ever going to come out of it, in the case of steam workshop.