A NOTE FROM BILL (Pagemaster here):
I wish to thank Chris Meadows aka Robotech_Master (robotech@GXL.WOODTECH.COM) for
translating the "uncoded" version Palladium orginally sent to the list AND for
posting it so others could read it. He posted the translated version to the
Palladium mailing list on Sun, 15 Oct 1995 11:48:32.
Thanks.
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PALLADIUM BOOKS INTERNET POLICY
Many of you have been waiting patiently for Palladium to
post it's policy about the use of Palladium intellectual property
on the internet. We at Palladium appreciate your patience.
Since early summer, we've been considering a number of
competing (and related) issues, trying to come up with a policy
that is fair to all concerned; gamers, the industry, and
copyright holders alike. We at Palladium (like most of you) wear
all of these hats at one time or another; some of the time we're
creators who are concerned with legitimate protection of the
"sweat of our brow". Other times, our greatest concern is the fun
of playing. Balancing these interests, we've come up with a
policy (please see below). We hope that this policy is acceptable
to all of you, and that it will help all of us wear all of the
hats we need to in this industry.
RIGHTS AND LICENSES
Palladium is happy to have individuals play Palladium games
and supplements on the net or other on line services, without
royalty, so long as the play is for personal enjoyment and not
financial gain.
Palladium is also happy to have you create derivative works
of Palladium text, so long as these derivative works are used
solely on the net or other on line services for personal fun.
We cannot grant permission to create derivative works, or to
take any of our other registered Copyright rights, for commercial
purposes or financial gain, unless there is a separate, written
agreement between you and Palladium.
Please note that permission to play on-line does not include
permission to down-load hard copies of Palladiums copy-written
materials. If you want a hard copy of a Palladium product, buy
the book! After all, if people stop buying the books, we won't be
able to pay our writers and artists to keep creating, and there
will be nothing for anyone!
Palladium and its agents cannot be responsible for any
violation of other people's rights which you might commit while
using Palladium products. For example, if someone combines a
Palladium product with another creator's product, thereby
infringing the copyright of the other creator, Palladium is not
responsible. In such a case, it is only fair that the person who
commits such a violation is solely responsible for their actions.
In addition, the violator is also responsible for any damages
that Palladium may suffer because of the violation.
To implement the policies described in the three paragraphs
above, Palladium needs to formally grant you a "limited license"
to use Palladium text. Please consider this paragraph your formal
"limited license" to use Palladium copy-written text and
trademarks solely for your own personal use and enjoyment on the
net and other on-line services. In addition, Palladium grants you
a "limited license" to create works which are derivative of
Palladium copy-written text, so long as the resulting "derivative
works" are used only on the net and other on-line services, for
personal fun, and NOT for financial gain.
In order to keep this "limited license", you must always use
proper Palladium notices (see section below on "Notices"), and
must also comply with all Palladium policies (including but not
limited to policies about liability for your actions on the net
and other on-line services) which we post.
We're going to keep an eye on how our policies are being
received and followed. We also expect some of you to raise issues
about our net policies which we should think about. In short, we
expect our net policy to evolve. Palladium therefore reserves the
right to change or even revoke this limited license. Palladium
also reserves all rights which are not specifically granted
above.
DERIVATIVE WORKS
Above, we've stated our policies about your use of Palladium
intellectual properties. A related policy involves Palladium's
use of works created by you using Palladium characters, settings,
etc.
Under the U.S. Copyright Act, these are "Derivative Works"
which, legally we have a right to prevent (take a look at Section
106 of the Copyright Act). Despite our rights, we are willing to
allow the creation of derivatives of our text strictly for
personal use (though not for financial gain).
In addition, we are not interested in owning the derivative
works which you create strictly for fun and personal use on-line.
Unlike some other gaming companies, we are not going to exploit
these derivative works merely because you posted them in a
certain place. Rather, if we are interested in any work which you
post, we will negotiate with you to acquire rights. If we reach
an agreement with you, fine. If we don't, you can still use the
derivative work for you personal, non-financial purposes
(obviously, you still can't use or license a derivative work for
financial gain in any way, under the Copyright Act).
We sincerely hope that Palladium's new Net policy leads to
hours of great gaming on net for all of us. Let us know what you
think!
NOTICES
Because of the way Copyright and Trademark laws work, anyone
who up-loads any Palladium material must include proper Copyright
and Trademark notices.
COPYRIGHT NOTICES
For all text and other works covered by the U.S. Copyright
Act, insert a copyright notice like the one that appears in the
front of the book. For instance, a proper copyright notice for
Rifts(R) would be:
"(C) 1983, 1987, 1988, 1990 Kevin Siembieda; (C) 1995
Palladium Books, All rights reserved world wide. No part of this
work may be reproduced in part or whole, in any form or by any
means, without permission from the publisher. All incidents,
situations, institutions, governments and people are fictional
and any similarity to characters or persons living or dead is
strictly coincidental."
This kind of notice must be included at least once any time
you are uploading any derivative Palladium material.
TRADEMARK NOTICES
For any use of our trademarks (whether registered or
unregistered), the proper notice should be used whenever the mark
is used. There are two (2) kinds of trademark notices. The
simplest type is the (R) for registered trademarks and the (TM)
for unregistered trademarks. These "simple" notices should be
used every time a Palladium mark is used, whether in a title or
text.
The (R) is used each time a registered mark is used, and the
(TM) is used each time an unregistered mark is used (see below
for lists of Palladium registered and unregistered marks).
It is sometimes confusing as to when a (R) or a (TM) should
be used and when it does not have to be used. If in doubt, use
the notice.
In addition to the "simple" notices (see above), you should
use a full notice (see below) at the beginning of any derivative
work.
The most common "full" trademark notices are as follows:
FOR REGISTERED TRADEMARKS:
"(insert name of trademark) (R) is a registered trademark
owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc."
For example, here is a proper trademark for Rifts(R):
"Rifts(R) is a registered trademark owned and licensed by
Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc."
Palladium's other registered marks are:
Palladium Books(R), Mechanoids(R), The Mechanoid
Invasion(R), Rifts(R), Megaverse(R), RECON(R), and After the
Bomb(R).
FOR OUR UNREGISTERED TRADEMARKS
The proper notice for an unregistered mark is (TM), placed
immediately following the mark.
"(insert name of trademark)(TM) is a trademark owned and licensed
by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc."
For example:
"Cyber-Knight(TM), Coalition States(TM), and Triax(TM) are
trademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium
Books, Inc."
Our unregistered trademarks include:
Nightspawn(TM), Nightlands(TM), Heroes Unlimited(TM),
Villains Unlimited(TM), Beyond the Supernatural(TM), Boxed
Nightmares(TM), Ninjas & Superspies(TM), Mystic China(TM),
Palladium Fantasy RPG(TM), Triax (TM), Mindwerks(TM), Vampire
Kingdoms(TM), The Juicer Uprising(TM), Phase World(TM),
Wormwood(TM), Psyscape(TM), Mega-Damage(TM), S.D.C.(TM),
I.S.P.(TM), P.P.E.(TM), SAMAS(TM), Splugorth(TM), Cyber-
Knight(TM), Glitter Boy(TM), Juicer(TM), Mind Melter(TM), Psi-
Stalker(TM), Coalition States(TM), Northern Gun(TM), Erin
Tarn(TM), Naruni(TM), ... and other names and titles.
We hope this information about intellectual property and
notices is useful. Please let us know what you think.
Maryann and Kevin Siembieda, and Larry Jordan, Esq.
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