Want to create a campaign ....what about copyright?

After a long time DMing and another long lasting campaign just finished i got some very great feedback and comments from all the players. One of them came up with an intriguing proposal "hei maybe you can upload the adventure online"....."yea sure" was my answer. But then i tought about it and i relized that a lot of the plot was only in my mind as well as the characters. Put everything together in an organic way sounded like a fun, even tough time consuming, challange. Maybe with a nominal fee for the downloadable pdf file i could invest some of my spare time on that, but then i immediately realized one of the biggest hurdle: COPYRIGHT. A lot of the images, map objects, textures, items and so on were taken from dundjinni, rpgmapshare, and other user created resources. Some stuff is explicitly labeled as "not allowed for commercial use", but for a lot more material it is simply unspecified. Does anyone has any suggestion on how to deal with this issue?

Hey I have had the same thought about the copyright thing. As far as I understand it, distribution is the key. As long as you are not letting people download copyrighted material you put up on Roll20 I think it is ok. For example I like playing card games. So if I own the game, scan the cards, upload them onto the site, and then make a game that my friends and I can enjoy, then it is no different then me inviting friends over to my house to play the same card game that I already own, except that we are playing it over the internet. As long as you are not trying to distribute through torrents or file sharing then I think it is ok. If you find material on a site that has the "not allowed for commercial use" warning then I think you can still use it just not distribute it or use it for financial gain. Unless of course you want to cough up the money to do so. Not sure if that helps, but it is just something I have been thinking about also and I have done a little bit of research into it. But the thing is the Roll20 site is still very new and I am not sure how this will all play out. The best thing I can think for you to do is to go in and edit all the artwork used in your campaign and make it your own. That way no one can say it is not your own.

I am afraid that you are wrong there. If you put anything copyrighted on Roll20, and without express authorization from the rights owner, and if your players download it, that's distribution (because now, they have the copyrighted stuff and could use or distribute it themselves). A small one and with very low chance to have legal problems, but still distribution.  Putting lots of copyrighted stuff on Roll20 servers (even for your players use) could cause more problems to Roll20 owners. @Gabriele r.: Copyright mentions are just put on stuff as reminders. The simple fact of creating something (artwork, text, photograpies,...) gives its creator a copyright about it. You must have an explicit authorization to use something without breaking copyright (either through a license like the ogl or some rights waiving from the creator).  Not much chance to have the copyright assault teams breaking through your door and putting you in jail for any personal use though. Publishing is something else. Edit: and editing existing works, doesn't makes it your own. It is derivative works and it is still covered by the original copyright.

Indeed i was refering to a small published campaign and not personal use with my group (with which i already had). Most of the maps are indeed made by me but using objects (trees, buildings, tiles etc) that can be found online (rpgmapshare, or dundjinni just to mention a couple). An alternative is to purchase the rights for a object/texture pack. Any idea what kind of figures are we talking about? i'm actually quite new

well a lot of the material on dun-jinni is community share. If you know where you got it I would make every effort to contact the creator and request permission to use it, and have a list of credits with your work. I would imagine that most people who put free material on dunjinni would be open to allowing you to use it to create something else for the community. If you are marketing this that might be a different story. It would depend on the artist.   That will cover about 99% of an copy right issues you come across. If you can not obtain permission, I would just change out the image/map to something of your creation or that some one is willing to donate. Good luck to you