How will this impact 40k sites?

[BuFFo]

A lot of people seem to have a very naive impression of GW. They're not a big evil faction, but legal will have been tasked with protecting the company's interests and that's what they're doing.

No, they are not evil, but incredibly stupid.

Gw knows the difference between someone trying to make a buck off their property and a fansite.

It doesn't take a genius to understand that.

I bet you would feel pissed if you showed up to a ComicCon, with a few pictures of Wolverine you drew, hoping to get them signed, only to have Marvel Lawyers sue you on the spot and take your drawings away.

Please.... Its a fansite.

I guess every time you put green stuff on your models, and try to sell them on eBay, you need to be aware that GW will appear on your doorstep, take their model back, and leave you with the green stuff.

I am sure some nerd will explain to me the difference between a fansite an eBay. Whatever.

Its a Fansite supporting a hobby, and it only helps to keep players active in said hobby.

But I guess the Webmaster must be swimming in millions of dollars from donations lol.

[Nabterayl]

You know, before people get too bent out of shape about this, you might go back and read Jwolf's post. From the sound of it, GW isn't actually asking that the site be taken down.

[Aldramelech]

To be fair your used to all this, its business and you live in that world. To us non business types any kind of legal action seems extreme and heavy handed. Its a matter of perspective I suppose.

[Duke]

Generally speaking:

individuals are stupid, companies are stupider-ist (bad english intendid)

lol

Duke

[Nabterayl]

Well, ok, fair enough. Try looking at it this way. What have they actually asked for?

1. Immediately cease and desist from any activity which infringes GW's intellectual property.

This sounds like a catch-all to me. If you actually go to the site it looks pretty bare-bones to me. I doubt that the author of this letter has anything specific in mind by this - if he did, it would have been enumerated.

2. either remove remove your website or the reference to 'Blood Bowl' in your website name.

Okay. Change the name. No big deal.

3. Remove the donations button from the page.

Think about this one. What's the argument here? GW is not (unless its lawyers aren't even worthy of their degrees) saying that people cannot donate money. If I want to give Chris a million dollars out of the goodness of my heart, there is damn all GW can do about it (although the IRS will surely rub its hands with glee).

What GW is almost certainly thinking of here is that Chris cannot get money from infringing GW's trademark. That's true - as far as it goes. Where doesn't it go? Two areas:

1. What is the actual infringement here? So far all GW has identified is the name of the site. Take that away (and take away any infringing images, just to be safe), and the site isn't infringing anything anymore.
2. Jwolf already suggested a great way to be extra sure about this one - just make it a newsletter subscription, or heck, even a newsletter donation. As long as the newsletter itself doesn't infringe (e.g., you don't call the newsletter "The BLOOD BOWL Times" and plaster it with Blood Bowl images), then Chris is just getting money for his newsletter. Nothing wrong with that.

4. Confirm by return that you will not infringe GW's intellectual properly rights at any time in the future.

Okay, this one is a bit heavy-handed, though it's not a surprise. It's also of dubious legal effect. Remember what this is - you're promising to follow the law. Let's say that you promise to GW you will never, ever infringe its intellectual property. Then, being a two-faced double-dealing *******, you turn around and <gasp> infringe.

What are they going to do? Sue you for infringing their IP, of course. Which they would have done anyway, because, you know, you broke the law. There is no penalty for breaking a promise to follow the law ... except of course for the penalty prescribed for breaking the actual law you broke. So I don't see that this one has any teeth.

So what does that leave us with? Reply letter saying that you don't think you infringed GW's intellectual property, never intended to infringe GW's intellectual property, and don't think you are, at this time, infringing GW's intellectual property - but are happy to accommodate their reasonable requests in the interests of avoiding a dispute. Change the site name, take down any Blood Bowl images, call the donation button something else. Done and dusted.

[Lerra]

The average person has a limited understanding of the law, and a lawyer affiliated with a large company is scary. We've all heard stories of people getting sued for seemingly minor infractions for $1.9 million or whatever (as was the case with a local woman vs. the RIAA). If you don't know the legal intricacies and can't afford to hire a lawyer to consult, it's not worth the risk just to run a small hobby website in your free time. The imagination can do a lot with the phrase "legal nightmare."