Tuesday 19 April 2011

Notice of Infringement

Today Games Workshop sent me a notice of infringement asking me to remove data files and links to them from the BattleScribe website and software. Basically the information included in the data files infringes on Games Workshop's (and other companies') copyrights. Although I knew this in the first place, I hoped that linking to these data files on another site would be OK. I have had to remove all data files and links to data files from the BattleScribe software and the website. Update: It's was confirmed today that the Data Project site must come down too.

Games Workshop are well within their rights to ask me to do so, and I have no intention of getting into legal trouble over what is essentially a hobby for me. This is not entirely unexpected, although it is unfortunate. To be fair they have been very reasonable about the whole thing and have answered any questions I've had.

To this end:
  • All posts announcing new data file releases have been removed
  • No more such announcements will be made here
  • All links to data files or sources of data files have been removed
  • Forum posts have had data files and links to data files removed
  • Forums relating to the "Data Project" have been removed
  • Issue tracker has been removed from the forum
  • You will be unable to post data files, links to data files or links to pages containing data files in the forum. Any such posts will be edited to remove infringing content

The Future
What does this mean for BattleScribe? Firstly it isn't going anywhere. The software itself is not at fault in any way and I will continue to maintain and improve it. Watch this space for new versions, news and announcements. I can also continue to provide support and advice on using BattleScribe and it's data file editors. I cannot however endorse, advertise or otherwise be involved with any projects to maintain a list of data files for BattleScribe. Any discussion or links to such projects can't be on this website or in the BattleScribe software.

If anyone has any questions etc, there's a post in the forum to discuss things.