Plugin legallity

[Rimeeri]

Hey guys I was working on making a plugin However I got asked the question is it Legal. I know that lackey as a program is legal My question is Is making/using a Plugin Illegal or against copyright?

[mathman1550]

We don't ask the question just in case we get an answer we don't want.

[Rimeeri]

lol well I am asking since it is not for profit does it fall into public domain type thing? Idk and i dont exactly know what too search for so that i swhy i am asking.

[GnKoichi]

A company could make the case that you are causing them to lose profits, so they would have legal standing, in theory, to ask you to stop. But as far as I know it's only happened once so far (A Decipher Community Admin requested that the Fight Klub plugin be removed at one point), so you're probably safe. They couldn't sue you, as far as I know, unless they asked you to stop and you didn't.

[Turonik]

lol well I am asking since it is not for profit does it fall into public domain type thing? Idk and i dont exactly know what too search for so that i swhy i am asking.

No, public domain means nobody owns the rights to it. I think you're meaning fair use which is a legal gray area. But a company can still ask of you to take down the plug in since you're using their images which they own. However, it seems that some companies are ok with the online counter parts since some know about them and never say/said anything about them. ANd I doubt that most would ever would since many people just use them for lay testing before going to legal tournaments or league play. ALso since the images are up on sortable search engines anyway. Though as you said before, if you were charging for said program or plugin, then that is more of an issue for the company.

[chriscone]

it's always possible that some companies will reap benifits because lackey allows people to play test their games. If they were smart, i would think this would be the approach to take or even encourage. Look how some have benifited in the music industry. I know personnally, if i play something on her and enjoy it, i'm more likely to purchase the cards. If they were smart they would make their own plugins and include some promo cards to help users find their products or talk about upcoming realeases.

[atomicpanda101]

(A Decipher Community Admin requested that the Fight Klub plugin be removed at one point)

I'm pretty sure this didn't have an impact seeing as no one plays it. Hell I've never even seen that before.

[Tokimo]

The vast majority of plugins are cases of copyright infringement. They are distributing copies of trademarked and copyrighted art and text without permission.

In general this sort of copyright infringement will at the worst case get a company to send you a letter saying "QUIT IT, WE HAVE LAWYERS!" Most of them won't even do that. WotC historically is very permissive about copyright. They won't bug you unless you are charging and infringing at the same time (for the most part). WotC has an amazing and stupid patent (all patents are stupid), that would allow them to troll every CCG ever, but they have been reasonable and not-trollish.

So, if you're concerned about it from a theoretical standpoint: No, not legal. From a CYA standpoint: You're not going to go to jail. From a practical standpoint: It's fine as long as you're not trying to profit from the copyright violation.