EDIT: LOOKS LIKE THINGS ARE GETTING STRAIGHTENED OUT. SO EVERYONE REMAIN CALM.
I could also call this post, “Why I probably won’t be welcome at the RPG Blog Alliance.” or “How I draw the ire of some of the most popular RPG bloggers out there.”
So if you’ve been under a rock the last couple of days, there’s a new RPG blogging community, The RPG Blog Alliance, found by by Jeff Uurtamo of RPG Circus. It’s really a great idea and I’m all for it. But I do have a little problem with the Terms. Here’s where I have a problem:
Licenses
By posting to or otherwise engaging in any communication within the Site, you are granting the Site (or any of its assignees) a perpetual, royalty-free, and irrevocable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, create derivative works from, transfer, and sell any such information.
It’s that last part, “sell any information” that’s got my spidey sense tingling. I’ve hung around these guys blogs for like years now and they seem to be stand up guys. And yes, I did the “Contact Us” thing last night. I know they’re busy setting this whole thing up and putting out probably half a dozen little virtual fires so I’m not really expecting to hear from them. That’s OK.
I’m no lawyer so you can draw your own conclusions. But please somebody just tell me that I’m a freaking idiot. I’m just being paranoid. Or that I’m just being stupid. Really, people I would like to be proven wrong or stupid in this case.
11 Responses to “Why I’m Probably Not Joining The RPG Blog Alliance or The Cautionary Tale of the Human Centipad”
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Chuck on 
Philo Pharynx on 
I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure that the “within the site” clause refers only to communications that you post directly to the Blog Alliance’s site, not your blog posts. That is, if you comment there or post on their forums. It is worth getting clarification, though.
Selling communications like forum posts or comments? That still gives me a bad feeling.
Yeah as written I can’t say I’m cool with that either. What I put on my blog, while it can be taken by others, by no means is the property of someone else.. The blatant, “if this is a cool idea and can make money we can nab it from you and there isn’t shit you can do about it” concerns me…
Yeah as written I can’t say I’m cool with that either. What I put on my blog, while it can be taken by others, by no means is the property of someone else.. The blatant, “if this is a cool idea and can make money we can nab it from you and there isn’t shit you can do about it” concerns me
wrathofzombie recently posted..How My GMing Style Has Changed and Where I Want to go From Here
I really don’t think it means posts aggregated via the RSS feed. But things like email addresses or what have you. Hmm.
Very interesting. I didn’t catch that. Talking with some of the founders and seeing what they have to say. They might be willing to change it, I imagine. They are some fairly even-headed guys.
@ Shinobicow that’s cool. Like I said I did do the “Contact Us” thing and I know they are busy getting the ball rolling. Just being a squeaky wheel.
Thank you for bring this to our attention. The Terms of Use is simply a boiler plate TOS. I’ll take your criticism and revise it. To be clear, your content is your content. The only thing you allow us to do is aggregate it. This why we have some of the tools such as the ability to hide individual posts in the first place.
I’ve removed the License section. If someone has a good idea of what sort of license if any should be given here, let me know.
Thanks. I understand the boiler plate. Got an email going off to Jeff.
No, Thank you. Honestly, I had not noticed that I failed to edit that area. Thanks for keeping us honest.
BTW, I am Jeff. I have several handles because of the various blogs and the like I’ve been a part of. I tend to use Bonemaster as my personal handle while I use RPG Circus for anything relating to the podcast.