Re: White Wolf to charge game fees...

Rrok Anroll wrote:

>I really think everyone needs to chill out and sit back and watch what
>happpens.... White Wolf could prove to be very reasonable in their
>treatment of events....
>
I'll take a pill myself, thanks, but I'll still toss out my two cents 
(this kinda rankles me on a base level)...

The largest problem with their entire contract (questionable legality as

a base aside) is the lack of clarification regarding those who charge in

order to run a game. While I cannot support their decision on moral 
grounds, I am certian their initial intention was to make those who 
charged above and beyond a reasonable fee for space/prop rental and 
snackage in-situ. In other words they don't mind if you decide to hold a

LARP session in a local hall so long as the only money you're collecting

is to cover the actual rental of the hall. That in and of itself dosen't

constitute a challenge to their IP or their copyright (since you're not 
profiting off the fees).

However, should you choose to charge extra above hall rental (for your 
august presence running this mess) then you'd be profiting off their IP 
and they'd want a cut like any good mobster.

But no, it's amazingly vauege.

As well, another facet is that of public/private preformances IE where 
does LARPing fall into? Obviously if one is holding it in one's 
basement, than it's private. But if one is renting out a hall, then does

that not constitute a public event? Actually, there are ways to run an 
event in a public space and still class it as private. An anime club I 
was associated with ran anime showcases of various tv shows. As the 
licencing restrictions for the shows and movies specifically prohibited 
public viewing, what they did was they rented out a small hall in a 
college, and then allowed people to purchase the effect of a one-day 
membership. The viewing room itself was then designated a private, 
members only screening. Proceeds from the one-day memberships and a 
small concession inside the viewing theatre were then put towards the 
rental, and the purchase of fresh supplies for next month's concession. 
As well, one could purchase a $20 membership good for a full year and 
providing free entry. As there were several 'full day' showings that ran

from midafternoon till midnight (normal ending time was around 8pm), 
considerable savings could be achieved by this method for the attendee.

The exact legality (as far as this mechanism skirted copyright) is 
certianly playing to the letter and not the spirit of the law. This 
being said, this showcase was being done when japanese animation was in 
it's infancy in north america, and served well to increase the 
popularity and the breadth of anime types that were brought over to 
north america and thus did much to increase the fanbase to such a degree

that it helped make anime a viable large-scale commercial market by 
showing new series to those already in the subculture, as well as 
exposing new fans to the subculture. It should be noted that A) this 
showcase system had been in place for 10+ years, and has as of about 9 
months previous been ended due to dropping attendance and the increasing

prevalance of anime in commercial stores for purchase/rental, B) had at 
the very least a tact approval of some industry bigwigs like Jerry Chu 
of Bandai... or was that AD Vision (these companies have a significant 
portion of the actual broadcast/distribution rights in north america, 
and Jerry was one of the corporate VPs... yes, we did know him 
personally!) and C) served to increase the fanbase significantly and 
keep those in the fanbase from drifting off (IE keeping customers for 
the distributors to sell product to!)

Alternatively, one could simply state that you are running a micro-con 
every month, with only one game being offered...