After reading a series from an author I recently discovered, I've had the nagging desire to start working on a fantasy book that I had at one time started writing in high school. Obviously that never panned out. Life had other plans, unfortunately. Anyway, I did one better, and tried to bring the world for that book to life in a MUD, which is where Malevolent Whispers got it's start. And while it's currently sitting stewing in it's own juices while I work on the wife's MUD and let the ideas swirl and simmer for MW, A thought occurred to me, and that thought provoked a question, one which I'm having issues discovering the answer to.

What kind of issues, moral or legal, would I be looking at if I used events that happened in the MUD (should it ever actually open) in the books, using the names of characters involved? Would some kind of disclaimer during the log-in process stating that events and names used in the MUD could appear in fictional works based in and on the world of the game make any difference?

I'm not saying I will or won't do this, but it was an interesting question, and I would like to find some semblance of an answer to it, before deciding one way or another. I'd probably be more inclined to center the book(s) in the history of the world prior to when MW begins, but one never knows where the creative spark will ignite.


P.S. As an unrelated note for those wondering, the author I discovered is Karen Miller, and the books are the Kingmaker Kingbreaker and The Fisherman's Children series.

If you own the rights to the characters and story then I can't imagine needing a disclaimer.

I was referring to player character names, and deeds, rather than NPC names and deeds though.

Well, that does mae it tougher since you'd be publishing fanfiction under your own name. This also makes a disclaimer somewhat useless. You'd need an agreement of some kind and because ofthe intellectual nature they could almost certainly renig on it without having it in writing.

There may be a solution involving changing names and events to sanitize the content but this is a basic problem you're going to run into when having others write your story. Most enterprises like this firmly keep players actions and names out of published lore.

Some MUDs TOS are structured to allow them to .. essentially have rights over the character's names/roles/whatever, though I'm not terribly fond of that method unless there's a way to opt out.

Maya/Rudha

It may be worth getting in touch with Wes Platt (Brody of OtherSpace), as he as been through the process of publishing this type of material. Specifically, books were published that were created from roleplaying logs of several story arcs on OtherSpace.

I would imagine that a simple TOS of "anything that happens here is property of this MUD and it's owner" wouldn't be too crazy for the average player or too worried about. However, were it me, I might include an option during char creation that simply controls a boolean that says whether or not the player is okay with you using their exact name in the story. Really, I'd be quick to think that if you simply changed their name that they couldn't get legally mad about it, and even if you did use the player char's name I doubt you'd get in trouble for it. It's not like someone owns a legal right to a sentence just by writing it, and even then I doubt you'd be copying exact phrases from the player's if you were putting the events into a book. Even if you were, then I'm really not sure how far they could go, unless they make a habit of copyrighting their MUD stories.

There's so many problems with disclaimers like that. They really only help to scare off lawsuits and possibly deter misuse of software.

For example, with you disclaimer if I roleplayed stealing characters and story from another source and you republished it you world be vulnerable. Just because your disclaimer says it belongs to you doesn't make it neccesarily true. Furthermore, in most countries simple disclaimers aren't considered agreements.

Yeah, obviously you run into the problems of republishing something someone else stole – and where you would be the one profiting, you'd be the one held responsible, I'd think. But, if we're worrying about the problems people in other countries would have then we're really going too far; don't Patent/Copyright Laws only apply in a single country, after all? If I publish a book, with a legally permissible Terms of Service in it that allows me to publish content generated on my site for a profit, and I live in America, would the legal ramifications of a lawbook in London really hurt me?

Its important to separate arguments that include reduced chance of litigation and arguments that involve being on the side of the law when they come.

So for the sake of saving breath let me say – yes, odds are that a mud doing such a thing wouldn't run into a law suit. Specifically because there's not much revenue involved or players.

Setting that aside I'm going to assume you're involved in a project that could have whirlwind success. Its after the fact that legal technicalities can trip you up.

When I said in most countries I included the united states. Even blizzard has had issues with their army of retainer lawyers in enforcing disclaimers.

Also, you don't have to apply for a patent to have your intellectual property protected.

Oh, very much no. Copyright law is pretty globally standardized these days, virtually universal: patents are a side issue with completely separate legal issues which don't apply to this situation, so I'll set that aside. But– it started with the Berne Convention, expanded to the whatsamacallit of Paris, blew up into the WIPO treaties, etc. Copyright these days is very much a global thing.

That said, individual national laws matter very little because, as a global thing, its been the subject of extensive treaties standardizing the terms of the laws on a global level. You get into something of an odd place sometimes on issues of "free speech", which is very strongly protected in the US but in some other places libel laws are very much stronger then ours are, but otherwise…

Now, that said, I assume your players have to agree to a TOS before playing, of some sort. I've seen more then one game that in said terms they were very specific that the Game and everything that happened on The Game, including your character and the story, were the property of the MUD Owners, and that you agreed to that. This isn't really analogous to the situation Blizzard and others run into with EULA's, as they are trying to use their own Copyright to enforce certain terms on you the consumer of the content: this is instead about you the creator assigning your own copyrighted material (anything you write on the game) to them, to redistribute.

Then again if you look around the internet you'll find a lot of websites which you write stuff on which have terms which basically are granting them irrevocable, perpetual licenses to republish what you wrote. Really, if you include such a license grant (and add 'create derivative works of', because I assume you want to not include their RP exactly as written) in your terms of service, and make everyone agree to it specifically, I think you'd be in a very good place defending yourself against a copyright infringement lawsuit by any players should you go publish your books and make a fortune. IANAL, though, and legal advice from forums on the internet is highly dubious to begin with, so. :)

Now, that's the "legal" part of the dilemma: morally? I have nothing against someone writing a book based on their game, or in their terms stating the game world belongs to them and is the property of the owners, period. I have nothing against having your builders agree to that so when they contribute areas/stuff/code to the game, it belongs to the game, the powers. I have nothing against you writing a book incorporating any and all of that. If there's feature characters designed by you that you let players play out, with some vaguest of guidance, I am still good.

But it's a whole other thing if you're saying someone's original character creations and actions are yours, and you include them in a book. That's a douchebag thing to do. It's fine to be inspired, even make up a very similar story line to one that developed in-game, but make it your own creation – its another thing to take my character, who I made, and rip off its actions and name and history and publish it as your writing… even if you have the legal right.

Change the names, be inspired by instead of simply duplicating RP, events and people in game, and you have no legal *or* moral issues, I think.

From a moral standpoint, I agree entirely with ixokai. The best thing to do, I think, is to reserve the right to reproduce at-will, like he said, but only exercise that right with a player's permission. I'd imagine that quite a few of the players who do amazing deeds on your MUD would be thrilled to death to have their actions on the game redistributed elsewhere, but for those that don't I'd personally give the courtesy of using my own work to re-write them out of whatever storyline took place.

Just because you disclaim having a right doesn't mean you actually have it. Furthermore, without proof that they agreed to anything its moot. How are you going to prove that? Maybe the original author wasn't even the person you're trying to reproduce the work of. The bottom line is you need to have an agreement that stands up in every case and assertion from the author of work you republish.

I don't think it's reasonable to get players to agree that you have the right to reproduce their characters' deeds and then try to track down every last one of them – they already gave the permission.

Regarding proving that they agreed to it, it's generally considered acceptable to say things like "if you continue to play, you agree to the ToS"; if the ToS says it, then they've agreed to it… Now, of course, as you said that doesn't mean they're actually bound to it (there are some agreements that would not be legal in certain jurisdictions) but that's another story.

"By playing this game, you are agreeing to this agreement. If you do not agree to these terms, do not play the game"

That said, there is a valid point in that making sure that the character's role and names etc, are unique to them and not duplications of works that you won't have the rights to.

Maya/Rudha

http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/license....

If you wanted to be the only person to every write using Roger in the story Vorhaul's Revenge (kudos if you get the reference), which is to say you wanted the exclusive rights, then by all means, yes, you would need something in writing, but merely the right to use it without a provision for exclusivity does not require written agreement.

Maya/Rudha

To further complicate the matter, unless your MUD is registration only, you probably don't have any real way to determine the real-life identity of many of your players. You can use the IP address in their login data, but that won't tell you much if they are using a public terminal at a university.

So, getting any sort of legally binding agreement from them may prove rather tricky, since there's no benefit to the player to provide the real-life information you'd need to make such a contract work. Yet, if they bring suit after the fact, they may well have all the data they need to prove they are the creator of the character in question.

While I think most people would be flattered to have the adventures of their character brought to life in a novel (or movie!), there's always somebody who'll gold-dig if they think they can make a buck off the legal system. Just be careful and do the homework, and good luck!

If you're talking contracts (rather than a simple licence), then as well as consideration you also run into the problem of age - some players may be minors.

I'll jump in on this. I really don't see how anything but bad things coming from this. You may get lucky and have everyone be 'hey cool, he is using my character in a story!" But, I can't see that being true for everyone. I for one would be quite PO'd if someone took one of my online characters and used them in a story.

I am not a lawyer. But I have been doing some research in related areas. The rights an author has to his material and what rights he gives to publishers and such. I think trying to do this would be very dangerous and could easily cost you a great deal of money if the wrong person gets angry at you.

To be blunt, if you have the skills and talent to write stories, why do you need to copy someone else's character and RP to make your story? If you don't have the talent and skills to write stories, then I don't think copying someone else's character and RP is going to help.

This is a general 'you' that I am using by the way. I have no idea of the writing talent or skills of anyone on MB. I know most of you folks are pretty talented programmers though. But programming and writing are not the same thing.

It might be best to just change the names, change the situation a little and go with that.

edit - fixed some very bad grammar in the first line.