Blood Bowl online Management League

[neocristal]

2010 October. 13, online gamers will see a new online game - online Blood Bowl League Management. Which is for Blood Bowl fans. The game will be free. Clearly advertising and support is the main breadwinner of the project, because the Game is advertising. Who wants to be able to play without pay for advertising, SMS, Paypal, CreditCard, Bank or other methods. Also, game developers looking for people to help build and develop the game. Game in multi language. Official english, other language are translation with google translation. Normal translation will be in BBOML beta 2. Same game developers are making new En Garde de la Rosa beta 4. And Changing own game website to new look.

Welcome to Blood Bowl - massive multiplayer Blood Bowl online Manager League game

This is the place where Blood Bowl fans can manage their favorite team for free. Play against other managers from all over the world, with 64 real life teams across the globe and over 1900+ real life Blood Bowl players.

Your task is to pick a team and manage their way up to the top. Get to the first three places in the club's starting division and then you can get into higher divisions, finally battle for the first place in division A.

The first season starts with clubs divided in four divisions equally so everybody has a chance to finish in first three places and advance to a higher division.

More info about the Blood Bowl Online Management League game. More ScreenShots...

[howlinggriffon]

Good effort - but I can really see Games Workshop having a serious downer on this one. I would suggest keeping some of the cash back for the inevitable legal fees you'll incur.

[neocristal]

Good effort - but I can really see Games Workshop having a serious downer on this one. I would suggest keeping some of the cash back for the inevitable legal fees you'll incur.

Why do you think that so far has been accessed and read in accordance with the legality of Games Workshop - "What can you and can not do with Games Workshop's intellectual property." And a review of each part of the site and compliance with the terms, I think that there are good things. Unless you have any comments, which would suggest that what is being done is wrong and guilty of Games Workshop rules? This game is free, nobody is going to have its profits, as well as each country has played a board game as normal and we have played this game like all the pieces we buy, so we are here to encourage and promote this game. Well, why, we will provide badly and said that this entire project will be brought to justice and closure?

[Anthony_TBBF]

The use of the Blood Bowl logo, or any of GW's (or other company's) artwork isn't covered by that disclaimer. Unless you have their explicit permission, you aren't free to use them. If I were you I'd start by removing those graphics. Just referring to it as a Blood Bowl game is going to be tough to get by GW's legal dept.

[howlinggriffon]

I'm not trying to play GW legal police officer It's just the community on this forum (and even the forum itself) has taken what might be called "a shit-kicking" from GW in the past. It would be a real shame for all your hard work and talent to get stamped on purely because you're doing the same thing that lots of other people on here have already had done to them. It's just a friendly heads up we're passing on from a voice of experience. What you've done is great and it would be fun to take part in the application for sure - I'd love to encourage you in it but I just wanted to give you a fair warning.

[VoodooMike]

The idea that such disclaimers offer even an iota of legal protection is a long-standing myth in the computer community (predating the internet, really). They do absolutely nothing to prevent you from getting your ass sued off by the owners of the copyrights you're liberally "borrowing" for your site's own purposes. Add to this the fact that Games Workshop has been flexing its IP muscles seemingly at random for the past year or so and you've got a recipe for disaster.

Why do you think that so far has been accessed and read in accordance with the legality of Games Workshop - "What can you and can not do with Games Workshop's intellectual property." And a review of each part of the site and compliance with the terms, I think that there are good things.

Not a very thorough review, it seems. Lets take a look at a few of the things GW says you cannot do:

- Use Games Workshop's intellectual property in relation to any commercial activity ­ this includes, for example, paying a printer to print some flyers for you, obtaining sponsorship, or selling non-Games Workshop materials using our trademarks.

A very common misconception is that in order for something to be "commercial" it has to be something you sell directly to the users. This is not the case. Given that you explicitly state that you will be using advertising to support your project, it is inherently a commercial venture - you will be seeking money as part of the project. This is why they make reference to sponsorship in this line. Television networks and Google run primarily off the selling of advertising in one form or another, and you can bet those are commercial.

- Make any direct copies and/or scans of Games Workshop publications, images, or other materials. This includes any Out-o- Production materials, web site materials, and White Dwarf articles. We would however suggest that you produce your own materials (as long as you follow the other requirements of this policy).

Y'know, like that logo that runs down the side of your game, or the logos of each of the races that you're using inside your game.

- Use our intellectual property in relation to any third party products or third party intellectual property.

Like, for example, using their intellectual property to create a game of your own.

Please don't use one of our trademarks to directly identify your web sit (e.g., "The Space Hulk Home Page"). This right is reserved for GW companies and formal licensees only.

Like calling your game/site "Blood Bowl Online Management League"

Skimming documents is never your friend! While the game may be something people would/will enjoy, you're accelerating toward that giant legal wall that is GW's current legal department... and everybody's money is on the wall.

[neocristal]

Hi VoodooMike, nice post for us, we read it carefully. And made some change. Of couse I search in web with keyword -> Blood Bowl. So I found that:
http://fumbbl.com/ make donate

We say if you wish for donate just for programing.

http://bloodbowldigital.com/ <-- bloodbowl home page start <-- I don't know if they have permission
http://www.bbpb.de/ <-- header Blood Bowl start <-- I don't know if they have permission
http://bbtactics.com/ <-- header Blood Bowl start, logo BB <-- I don't know if they have permission
and so on...

- Make any direct copies and/or scans of Games Workshop publications, images, or other materials. This includes any Out-o- Production materials, web site materials, and White Dwarf articles. We would however suggest that you produce your own materials (as long as you follow the other requirements of this policy).

We don't copy any material from any Games Workshop publications.

I think that if this GW rules work realy we will not see any webpage of something like Blood Bowl or other games websites, forums or other...

I think that I will write a letter to GW and direct link to game, that this company check legacy.

[VoodooMike]

So I found that:
http://fumbbl.com/ make donate

We say if you wish for donate just for programing.

You may have missed the following:

http://www.fumbbl.com/modules.php?op=mo ... e&sid=1570
http://www.fumbbl.com/modules.php?op=mo ... e&sid=1574

And that fumbbl doesn't display graphics derived from GW images, by default, on their client that is simply called the "Fantasy Football Client".

http://bloodbowldigital.com/ <-- bloodbowl home page start <-- I don't know if they have permission

BBD never made it onto GW's radar as far as I know. It may have been the fact that they were one of the sites linked to by the Cyanide game page. They did, however, cut a path of destruction through the majority of sites that featured the word "blood bowl" in the site title including THIS forum which was called "Talk Blood Bowl" until then.

http://www.bbpb.de/ <-- header Blood Bowl start <-- I don't know if they have permission
http://bbtactics.com/ <-- header Blood Bowl start, logo BB <-- I don't know if they have permission
and so on...

"But... they do it too!!" is not really a legal argument. Lots of people break the law every day and nothing happens to them because there's only so much enforcement to go around. That said, if you're actually hoping to get your game "on the map" then you'll be presenting yourself as a large target for the legal department. You pay your money and you take your chance if that's how you want to roll, but I'm betting you'll be right back here complaining about your C&D orders before too long.

We don't copy any material from any Games Workshop publications.

Did you draw these logos yourself? http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak- ... 9020_n.jpg
What about this pitch? http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak- ... 1689_n.jpg

You're using images that are not drawn by you, both hand-drawn stuff from GW's products, and images from other sources - unless you and your staff created those yourself from scratch or has direct permission from the owners of all copyrights involved in those images. Even doing something like taking screenshots from the Cyanide game and cropping those down would be a copyright violation as it would constitute a derivative work - Machinima has run into that type of issue in the past.

I think that if this GW rules work realy we will not see any webpage of something like Blood Bowl or other games websites, forums or other...

That sounds less like "I think we're legal" and more like "I don't think we'll get caught". The latter might be true for a while, but don't be upset when they do shut you down, is all.

Like I said, you can just roll the dice on this, but do be aware that your site/game is NOT compliant with GW's IP permissions.

[neocristal]

You pay your money and you take your chance if that's how you want to roll, but I'm betting you'll be right back here complaining about your C&D orders before too long.

That are you mean C&D orders?

Did you draw these logos yourself? http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak- ... 9020_n.jpg
What about this pitch? http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak- ... 1689_n.jpg

You're using images that are not drawn by you, both hand-drawn stuff from GW's products, and images from other sources - unless you and your staff created those yourself from scratch or has direct permission from the owners of all copyrights involved in those images. Even doing something like taking screenshots from the Cyanide game and cropping those down would be a copyright violation as it would constitute a derivative work - Machinima has run into that type of issue in the past.

OK we do... But we changing it now. About the logos. About 80% of Blood Bowl web sites I found this logos are using. I think that this logos are drowned by someone line and GW logos. Maybe I don't know. But we Will change it too for GW IP.

[VoodooMike]

That are you mean C&D orders?

Cease and Desist orders - GW legal's first line of offense. They order you to stop violating their IP - from the looks of it they're not fond of being specific about it, either. Even if you manage to get your site totally in line with their guidelines and what is actually legal in the country you get hosted in, they may still do this... the difference is that if you've made sure the site complies with the laws you can tell GW to stuff it.

OK we do... But we changing it now. About the logos. About 80% of Blood Bowl web sites I found this logos are using. I think that this logos are drowned by someone line and GW logos. Maybe I don't know. But we Will change it too for GW IP.

A lot of sites do use the official Blood Bowl logo somewhere on their site. This doesn't mean it is OK to do so, just that GW hasn't forced them to stop yet. GW CAN force them to stop, however. Think of it like speeding in your car.. do you see people speeding? Probably every day. Does that mean you won't get ticketed for speeding? Not at all... it all depends on whether or not the cops are watching that day, and how much you decide to stand out from the crowd.

Please don't get me wrong here - I'm not opposed to your site or your game at all. In fact, I'm a big supporter of 3rd party stuff and wish there was more of it. That said, when doing things that are bordering on illegal you need to be very careful with the HOW, because it's less about being undetected and more about not leaving any sensitive bits exposed.

Good luck with your site!