GW’s round of C&D Letters
Well it appears the GamesWorkshop lawyers are at it again sending out another round of “Cease and Desist” letters. Years back I would have found myself frothing at the mouth, feeling scorned and a ball of ill will building in my gut. Surprisingly to me, I find myself absolutely neutral on this last round. I frequent BoardGameGeek a bit and I’ve heard numbers tossed around about hundreds of files being deleted off of their servers. The popular BloodBowl site TalkBloodBowl had to change their name and their site now redirects you to TalkFantasyFootball. There have been other sites as well that have been contacted by GW Lawyers but as I’ve mentioned I just don’t find myself interested this time around. Years ago I would have surfed the net for hours looking to see who was affected and what sites had problems. But now I’m a little bit older and just don’t find myself with the energy to get upset, but since others have I thought I’d mention a few things.
First a little story and a word of warning: I read on a few sites something that I thought was interesting and a little unbelievable. For those looking to tatoo their favorite army or race icon/emblem on themselves, they best learn how to ink themselves otherwise they open themselves up to a GW IP lawsuit. From their legal page: “This also means that we cannot allow tattoos as an acceptable use of our IP as a thrid party necessarily has to perform the “service”". I couldn’t help but smile at this one, but it does go to show that GW is very serious about their IP.
But back to the point at hand. As I’ve been interested in GW games for many years now I have seen the rounds of C&D letters before so perhaps the past round was nothing shocking to me as even this site here was hit with a C&D letter at one point. It had to do with a polical cartoon that was posted using the GW logo as the head of a body that was butt-fucking a bent over “customer” as he held up a model with a huge pricetag on it as commentary on one of the at the time recent price increase announcements that GW made. Now I’ll admit that I was on the sideline of this one but from my understanding GW claimed that it was an illegal use of their IP and logo. I believe our response was along the lines of “It falls under ‘fair use’ and in addition “parody”. Now I’m not going to pretend to be a lawyer so DO NOT take that as any sort of advice. But I will say we were able to keep the cartoon up.
What it does show is that GW does tend to swing a heavy lawyer hammer and in a pursuit to protect their IP they often overstep and claim something as illegal use of their IP when in reality it is not. The sad truth is that GW knows fan sites and even large sites like BoardGameGeek do not have the pockets to put up a legal defense. When one company has the receipts to support hundreds and hundreds of employees and their families where the biggest online sites are able to support perhaps a dozen employees and their families, there really isn’t a mystery as to who is set up for a prolonged legal battle. And sadly until someone is able to step up to the plate and actually have a court decide what is legal or illegal use of GW IP, GW will continue with the heavy hammer in pursuit of protecting their IP. And sadly every few years, if you stick with GW enough you’ll see more rounds of C&D letters until someone has the wherewithal to actually put up a defense when accused of illegal use of IP.
Now, I’m not calling for a boycott like others have. What I do want to say though is if you have had problems with GW in the past in terms of armies that you’ve spent money on being outdated or feel the heavy hand of the GW lawyers on your fan site, one of the best things you can do is vote with your wallet. Just stop buying, supporting, posting or doing anything related to them. If you feel that much passion towards the cause, then make sure GW makes you break. Personally over the years, yeah, they’ve pissed me off and over time I have cut them down to a small percentage of my gaming efforts. When I first started gaming it was GW or nothing, now I have seen more of what the gaming hobby has to offer and now GW products account for less than 10% (perhaps even less than 5% - I haven’t been keeping accurate records) of my gaming time and effort. GW itself has made approximately $100 from me over the past few years (I just had to get Space Hulk 3rd Ed). Does just one person like myself matter to GW? No. With sales in many countries over multiple continents one person in Kansas means nothing to them. The best thing I can do for myself and my soul is to educate and inform.
GW has gone to great lengths to isolate themselves from the rest of the hobby world. By spending hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in rent and store build outs they have created a hobby shop which keeps people isolated from what else is around them in the hobby market and as I mention above there is a reason behind this. Proven by their track record, if you stick around with GW long enough, the chances are good that they’ll do something that pisses you off. Be it outdating an army (I’ve had that happen not once, not twice, but three times), or outdating a rule set (I still play the SpaceMarine/Titan Legions version of Epic), or in general pissing you and a community you might be a part of online (such as the recent events at BoardGameGeek). This record has shown that retention is not a large part of their business model. New customers with virgin views of GW seems to be their target. They want people who are new to GW and not familar with their past transgressions. They want people who are uneducated about the greater gaming hobby and keep them focused on just the GW hobby. Any of us “loyalists” will eventually hit a point like I have where outside of an odd purchase here or there GW just doesn’t get my money.
So if you want to hit GW where it hurts take it to the streets, take the time to educate new gamers within your community, provide them options in terms of games, worlds and genres. Now, I’m not saying camp outside GW stores telling people not to come in, or put up websites that tell part truths or try to slander GW. What I am saying is be part of the local gaming community and share your knowledge and experience. GW is doing the exact same thing by coming into your community and opening their store. They’re looking to educate new gamers within the community about the virtues of their products so if you have strong feelings towards GW then I suggest you do the same. GW has a track record of doing and conducting business a certain way and though the past does not always predict the future, it does provide a pretty good idea as to what is likely to happen. As for me, this is about the most effort I’ve put towards GW in recent times and chances are will be the most for some time to come. I understand that they have a business model of cycles to try to perpetually keep people buying their models. I also understand that they have to be diligent to maintain protection over their IP. Myself, the GW world is still rich and interesting but I have squelched the desire to have multiple armies for games. I am happy with what I have (with the exception of a few items to round out a few of my armies) and perhaps one day I’ll actually buy those models, but seeing as how I’m more interested in a lot of the other options out there in the hobby market, those purchases might be for some years to come.
‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT
