BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Miniatures and Terrain => BattleTech Miniatures => Topic started by: worktroll on 12 November 2014, 23:48:06
-
Folks,
We're seeing more and more of this, and please - it needs to stop.
Short form - the company running MWO has given permission for people to use the 3D models in the game for the purpose of printing 3D minis for their own personal use. This means that people:
- extract the model by themselves
- print the mini on a 3D printer they own
- do not share the minis with anyone else.
Personal use is exactly that - you only. It doesn't mean you can send the 3D models for printing anywhere else, and it doesnt mean you can sell, trade or give away models - physical or electronic.
In these forums, we have rules, including 10. Respect copyright. Any minis based on MWO IP which are not made under the very limiting conditions above are not authorised reproductions.
We know where these minis are coming from. But we of the BattleTech forums are not interested in what people do in their own homes, with their friends, or on other forums. We will not be despatching lawyers to exact retribution. But we won't have unauthorised reproductions posted on our forum.
So please don't.
Where it's likely that this is an innocent mistake, we'll pull the post and provide some friendly advice. If someone kept doing this, or really should have known better (eg. they've been posting minis here for years), we reserve the right to issue formal Warnings under the forum Rules (although this is usually not our preferred action).
We don't believe there's a lot of confusion whether a mini is IWM metal, CGL plastic, or 3D printed in origin. At the moment, one has to go out of one's way to pick up the MWO-derived minis, and it's unlikely that spivs are sidling up to people in game stores hissing "Want to buy a cheap Cataphract for the weekend, guv'ner? Nudge, nudge?". So please respect the Rules here.
Happy to answer reasonable questions. However, defences of the right to post images of unauthorised reproductions or other unlicenced minis, no matter how spirited, will be pulled due to their status re Rule 12.
Worktroll, Administrator
for the BattleTech Forum Management Team.
-
What if you have done it on a personal 3d printer? Can you post your work?
-
How can we tell?
We'd ask you not to, thanks. We really don't want to spend our time being IP commisars.
OTOH, any original designs are OK.
Cheers,
W.
-
What if you have done it on a personal 3d printer? Can you post your work?
How can we tell?
We'd ask you not to, thanks. We really don't want to spend our time being IP commisars.
Just to be crystal clear, are you talking about posted pics in someone's post, or does this include the Avatar too?
-
Avatar too.
This is completely separate from the Unseen issue, which is the result of a legal agreement made between FASA & others, and honoured by subsequent holders of the IP. For reasons making sense to lawyers, art of the Unseen is unacceptable outside the limited use in avatars.
The MWO mini issue is around unlicenced production & distribution. There is no official production and distribution for MWO-derived minis at this time, despite what some people might like to think. The good people at HBS were entitled to use MWO-derived minis they organised production of in the recent "beard-off" game, because
a) HBS own & control the rights to that art, after all, and
b) they weren't distributed.
The issue we have is there are unlicenced minis derived from MWO art out there, and we're unable to come to each house to watch while you print one out on your very own 3D printer, and never use it for anything other than personal use. So we ask - "don't show."
Makes sense?
W.
-
Avatar too.
This is completely separate from the Unseen issue, which is the result of a legal agreement made between FASA & others, and honoured by subsequent holders of the IP. For reasons making sense to lawyers, art of the Unseen is unacceptable outside the limited use in avatars.
The MWO mini issue is around unlicenced production & distribution. There is no official production and distribution for MWO-derived minis at this time, despite what some people might like to think. The good people at HBS were entitled to use MWO-derived minis they organised production of in the recent "beard-off" game, because
a) HBS own & control the rights to that art, after all, and
b) they weren't distributed.
The issue we have is there are unlicenced minis derived from MWO art out there, and we're unable to come to each house to watch while you print one out on your very own 3D printer, and never use it for anything other than personal use. So we ask - "don't show."
Makes sense?
W.
Absolutely, hopefully that clears it up for everyone.
I don't have any MWO minis to post anyways, as my trained hamster died of soap poisoning before the sculpt was finished. :))
-
Out of curiosity, is posting renders you've done using MWO materials allowed? Nothing 3D printed or anything, just what I've done in Blender and rendered on my screen. I was planning to put a nice Davion color-scheme MWO Warhammer as my avatar but I don't want to get anyone upset.
-
It would probably be fine and most appropriate in the Fan Art section since it isn't mini related.
-
Does this also apply to the odd design for the Hellhound from MW:4 Mercs? I know it's not an MWO Mech, but it is one that was designed for MW:4 Mercs since the Hellhound was Unseen at the time and the 2003 Redesign wasn't released. I actually prefer the MW:4 Mercs design over the two official ones and plan on getting a mini of it, hence why I am asking.
-
Does this also apply to the odd design for the Hellhound from MW:4 Mercs? I know it's not an MWO Mech, but it is one that was designed for MW:4 Mercs since the Hellhound was Unseen at the time and the 2003 Redesign wasn't released. I actually prefer the MW:4 Mercs design over the two official ones and plan on getting a mini of it, hence why I am asking.
I suspect the answer will be, "no miniatures derived from the Battletech IP that are not produced by officially licensed channels." Or some variation thereof.
-
Even shorter than that - "no manufactured minis for any IP you don't have the rights to."
We don't want to see unlicenced repros of CAV, Armored Cor, or Patlabor minis any more than BT ones.
So if you're getting someone else to make a 3D model of the MW4 Hellhound, then you print it, we ask you not to post it here - unless MicroSoft has given you express permission to print said mini.
(Personal use means 'you do it all' - not 'you pay someone to do some/all of it').
CGL can't give permission to distribute minis based on MW4, MWO, MWT or any other computer licence because they aren't the licence-holders.
Let me know if you have any more questions. For example, kitbashing MW4-alikes has a long and honourable tradition, and is totally OK, as long you're not using unlicenced minis as a base, etc.
Cheers,
W.
-
The obvious solution is to make your own, out of clay. 3D printers are for sissies! :P
Don't let the machines do everything for you. . .it just encourages them towards the day when they revolt and take over the world. Our 'mechs still use human pilots too, right? We're not playing drone vs. robot here.