Twine Copyright

This is a plain-English guide to the Twine Encyclopaedia's copyright rules. It explains about adding your own material to Twine and about what you can do with Twine articles. You might also be interested in general instructions.

1. What's the deal when I write something in this encyclopaedia?

1.1. What can I add?

1.2. My character uses [commercial game]'s rules.

1.3. Can I play one of the main characters from [book/film/etc]?

1.4. Can I play an original or fan character from [book/film/etc]'s universe?

1.5. I made my character's species up myself.

2. Can I add to somebody else's article?

3. What can I do with the information in Twine?

3.1. Can I copy an article from Twine and post it up elsewhere?

1. What's the deal when I write something in this encyclopaedia?

When you add something to Twine, whether you're adding a new article or expanding an old one, you are giving Profusion and MoonBurnt members permission to display, copy, change, publish, show off etc. your writing.

You still hold the copyright to your own intellectual property (like your characters, or planets or species you invented) and of course you can also post or publish your contributions elsewhere.

We may delete or overwrite content from Twine at our own discretion, although, if possible, you'll get a warning before anything major disappears.

1.1. What can I add?

You can add anything that's yours if you agree to the conditions above.

Text is ok and so are images (though we ask you to keep your images small, out of courtesy to anyone who might be reading over a slow internet connection).

Don't post someone else's copyrighted stuff to Twine. That means no copying paragraphs from sourcebooks, someone else's website or anything else that doesn't belong to you. We don't allow any material with a 'viral' licence (such as the GPL or Creative Commons ShareAlike) - note that this includes Wikipedia - or licences that forbid commercial use. (To be clear, you are allowed to link to things under these licences.) You can add material made available under attribution-only licences, providing you follow the terms of that licence.

1.2. My character uses [commercial game]'s rules.

Short answer: That's OK at MoonBurnt, but in order to use the character at Profusion you'll have to ditch the bits you don't own. When you add your character to Twine, its profile must be written so that someone who doesn't know the source material will be able to understand it, and you must not use copyrighted text (or images etc).

More detailed answer:

At Pro: If you want to play the character at Pro, you'll need to understand Pro's [copyright rules]. In brief: if you play somebody from a trademarked species at Pro, you must make the character into a generic species ("an elf", "a vampire", "a werewolf"). Alternatively, of course, you can use a species you make up yourself, as long as you don't use anyone else's material.

At MoonBurnt: MoonBurnt allows RPG/fan characters, but its admin requests that you have more original characters than RPG/fan characters as a general rule.

In Twine: You can't put copyrighted stuff up on Twine. Mentioning that a character is an Ewok, Gangrel etc. is acceptable, but you can't put in any bits from sourcebooks or put in long lists of your character's ability names.

• Describe the character instead of reeling off jargon and numbers. Stats are useless because:
  • we don't use stats to determine fights and things: you and the other writer will be deciding the outcome based on both characters' abilities and the results you want for the scene
  • some of the people reading might not know anything about the game/fandom in question, and it's not their duty to learn; you need to give a good general idea of your character's appearance and abilities
• Twine has general entries for RPG universes like the World of Darkness, which offer external links with more information. When mentioning your character's clan/species, link the term to that page (like this: Gangrel).

1.3. Can I play one of the main characters from [book/film/etc]?

Sorry, no. We don't write fanfiction at either group, so you can't play a 'canon' character (i.e. an 'official' character, anyone who appeared in the book/film/whatever itself).

1.4. Can I play an original or fan character from [book/film/etc]'s universe?

The same rules as in 1.2 (please see above). Yes at MoonBurnt. Yes at Pro if you leave out the bits you don't own.

A special case may apply if the material in question was authored by a Pro or MoonBurnt member. Then you should talk to the copyright holder directly.

1.5. I made my character's species up myself.

Cool! Lots of us at both Pro and MoonBurnt enjoy worldbuilding. Add the species to Twine and include anything you think we'd find it useful, or interesting, to know.

Bear in mind that worldbuilding isn't a way around Profusion's trademarked character rule - you can't take a race from an RPG and make minimal changes and call it your own.

2. Can I add to somebody else's article?

Yes - that's the point of a wiki, and we encourage you to do just that.

If there is any dispute, the owner of the character or thing in question has the final word - after all, they invented it.

3. What can I do with the information in Twine?

Twine is intended as a reference tool for Profusion and MoonBurnt members. You can link to Twine pages from our boards, and from anywhere else on the web (for example, if you play the same character at another group). Of course, we also hope you'll have fun reading it.

3.1. Can I copy an article from Twine and post it up elsewhere?

Is it something you wrote about your character? If so, you can do what you like with it! The copyright belongs to you. Same goes if you co-wrote a significant amount of the article.

If you didn't write the text but still want to use it, you can do so by following these rules:

• Don't change the text. (You can post just part of an article as long as the bit you quote isn't altered.)
• Say where you got it from. "This text is from Twine Encyclopaedia" or something similar is fine.
• Include the link to Twine's front page (http://twine.hellhound.net) or, preferably, to the specific article you quoted.