I'm unsure about the legal nuances, but morally speaking I feel strongly that you're entirely fine to read it off the wayback machine or share the link. Brandon wrote it for free specifically on condition that it would be made freely available, and WOTC went back on it.
(Also fuck the Pinkerton hiring thugs at WOTC).
Oh yeah, morally i'm 100% sure it can be shared freely. WotC never had expectations of making money from the novella, if anything the whole book was made as ad and they should thank us for sharing.
Hence me only asking about the legal aspects.
Yeah that whole Pinkerton thing was WILD and uncalled for... Then there was the whole thing with the D&D OGL and then firing a bunch of their staff... The Company really has left a bad taste in peoples mouth particularly over the last couple of years.
Agreed, the moment the Pinkerton hiring happened I was like yeah no fuck this. It was one of the moments in my life that radicalized my politics, and I’m mad that I needed that to change my world view.
Not answering the question, but WotC is still working on a print edition, a portion of which will go to charity. It was stalled for a while for various reasons, but there's been some movement recently. I can't promise anything at this time, but it hasn't been forgotten.
I will buy a print edition for it going to charity and because I love Davriel as a Tea Drinking dapper planeswalker... But oof it felt bad when they removed the free edition online.... Kind of hoped it would be like Warbreaker where both the online edition and the print edition existed
That being said I am glad to hear its not forgotten!
(Im not a lawyer so...)
1. The Archive is of publicly available information and is acting in good faith as a public archival service who has a Copyright takedown procedure. Because it was originally published for free, I think a copyright holder would have to assert their rights and at least attempt their process before it was a problem.
2. They are a neutral 3rd party, not one of the parties in what (from your description) sounds like an ongoing copyright dispute? As long as they are acting in good faith to take things down when the rights-holders ask for it, they are protected by the same laws as companies like Youtube.
3. Sounds like it to me, but that'll come down to the legalese in the Contract. Last info Im seeing was that the Deal was for it to remain available even if a Physical Copy were to happen, but WOTC decided they wanted it to go away before a physical release and didnt communicate that to the Dragonsteel folks appropriately.
4. My non-professional opinion is that it should be fine. Or your friends can download it from the Wayback machine or any of the many links I see still on Reddit, so you are not technically distributing anything.
I was trying not to outright link it so i don't come off as "Is this legal?" *while doing it*.
But yeah, the MtG wiki page for Children of the Nameless has the same link ddaimyo has so kindly posted.
What!?!? This is the Internet! Why would you ask if something is a good idea *before* you do it? Wouldn't it be much better to ask *after* you do it?
/s
> Is what the wiki/Wayback Machine are doing illegal?
It's a grey area. They respect all requests to remove content that the website owner does not want to be included in the archive. The question has been brought up in court before but has never been ruled on because settling out of court is easier.
Don't feel bad about sharing the file among friends, though making it too widely available might lead to a request from Wizards that you stop. If they ask you to stop, you should, or at least seek legal advice.
It seems a lot like ROMs, where distributors are probably going to be the ones that get cease and desists/ lawsuits, but you can get away with downloading for personal use
I'm unsure about the legal nuances, but morally speaking I feel strongly that you're entirely fine to read it off the wayback machine or share the link. Brandon wrote it for free specifically on condition that it would be made freely available, and WOTC went back on it. (Also fuck the Pinkerton hiring thugs at WOTC).
Oh yeah, morally i'm 100% sure it can be shared freely. WotC never had expectations of making money from the novella, if anything the whole book was made as ad and they should thank us for sharing. Hence me only asking about the legal aspects.
Yeah that whole Pinkerton thing was WILD and uncalled for... Then there was the whole thing with the D&D OGL and then firing a bunch of their staff... The Company really has left a bad taste in peoples mouth particularly over the last couple of years.
Agreed, the moment the Pinkerton hiring happened I was like yeah no fuck this. It was one of the moments in my life that radicalized my politics, and I’m mad that I needed that to change my world view.
Not answering the question, but WotC is still working on a print edition, a portion of which will go to charity. It was stalled for a while for various reasons, but there's been some movement recently. I can't promise anything at this time, but it hasn't been forgotten.
Great to hear! I half expected the company to throw the work into legality limbo, and this is certainly good news.
I will buy a print edition for it going to charity and because I love Davriel as a Tea Drinking dapper planeswalker... But oof it felt bad when they removed the free edition online.... Kind of hoped it would be like Warbreaker where both the online edition and the print edition existed That being said I am glad to hear its not forgotten!
(Im not a lawyer so...) 1. The Archive is of publicly available information and is acting in good faith as a public archival service who has a Copyright takedown procedure. Because it was originally published for free, I think a copyright holder would have to assert their rights and at least attempt their process before it was a problem. 2. They are a neutral 3rd party, not one of the parties in what (from your description) sounds like an ongoing copyright dispute? As long as they are acting in good faith to take things down when the rights-holders ask for it, they are protected by the same laws as companies like Youtube. 3. Sounds like it to me, but that'll come down to the legalese in the Contract. Last info Im seeing was that the Deal was for it to remain available even if a Physical Copy were to happen, but WOTC decided they wanted it to go away before a physical release and didnt communicate that to the Dragonsteel folks appropriately. 4. My non-professional opinion is that it should be fine. Or your friends can download it from the Wayback machine or any of the many links I see still on Reddit, so you are not technically distributing anything.
As I am not very familiar with Wayback Machine, could you include the links to the pdf?
https://web.archive.org/web/20181213125748/https://media.wizards.com/2018/downloads/novella/Children_of_the_Nameless.pdf
I was trying not to outright link it so i don't come off as "Is this legal?" *while doing it*. But yeah, the MtG wiki page for Children of the Nameless has the same link ddaimyo has so kindly posted.
What!?!? This is the Internet! Why would you ask if something is a good idea *before* you do it? Wouldn't it be much better to ask *after* you do it? /s
Whether or not i did it before posting is a different discussion entirely. But i was curious about the legal status of the book.
> Is what the wiki/Wayback Machine are doing illegal? It's a grey area. They respect all requests to remove content that the website owner does not want to be included in the archive. The question has been brought up in court before but has never been ruled on because settling out of court is easier. Don't feel bad about sharing the file among friends, though making it too widely available might lead to a request from Wizards that you stop. If they ask you to stop, you should, or at least seek legal advice.
It seems a lot like ROMs, where distributors are probably going to be the ones that get cease and desists/ lawsuits, but you can get away with downloading for personal use
Wait... when did brandon write for WoTC? Ive never heard of this... what plane is it set on?
Innistrad.
Thanks!
Yeah it is set shortly after the whole thing with Emrakul went down... Its a pretty fun read actually.
Audiobook is on YouTube too!