[Latt_Ice]

Hi,

   The computer game mentioned was released about a month ago and already has an active modding community in the Steam workshop.

   While I am sure that, HBS, the company that produced the game are acting with respect for your copyright(s), one or two private individuals have scanned images from your PnP sourcebooks and have uploaded them to Steam workshop as usable graphic assets.

   Personally, I feel that allowing us to use the images in user generated content for the game would have a reciprocally positive impact on your own products, but I have no desire to risk acting contrary to your copyright or to risk tarnishing HBS and their computer game by doing so without your approval.

   I would appreciate it if you could post a resolution to this question, preferably on Steam, so that the computer game community knows how to act with integrity with respect to your rights.

     Thank you in advance, Latt Ice (concerned modder).

[AJCarrington]

You should probably send this as an email directly to CGL...far more likely to get a response that way.

http://www.catalystgamelabs.com/contact/

[Michael Chandra]

This popped up before at the Shadowrun Universe forum and someone has in fact contacted CGL about it, though no answer yet due to GenCon. I'm including the messages below:

Shadowrun books and Copyright

Hello. I'm contacting you guys for information on a particular issue that's been brought up in the Shadowrun Returns community. As it is, a lot of users there are long time fans of Shadowrun and own several of the books that have been published over the years. In order to enrich our user generated content (UGC) many of us wish to use the lore, settings, adventures and general information these books provide, as well as the artwork they contain. If I understand correctly, Catalyst Game Labs holds legitimate copyright claim over such material, which is why I've come to ask if there is any issue whatsoever with using these books to their full extent in our Shadowrun Returns UGC. Of course, we are aware that claiming ownership over this material is not permitted, nor is making profit out of it.

We've all been concerned with the legal implications that could arise from such practice, specifically in what pertains to reproducing original artwork through this medium. Therefore, if you could inform us the position of Catalyst Game Labs regarding this matter, it would be very helpful. I sincerely hope there is no issue with allowing it, especially since our sole purpose is to make free content for the users of our community.

Re: Shadowrun books and Copyright‏

Unfortunately that's going to take some digging and we're days away from leaving for Gen Con and then Pax Prime is 2 weeks after that, so we really won't be able to dedicate time to investigating that until into September.

Please remind us the first week of September and we'll be able to dive into that.

Thanks!

Randall Bills Managing Developer Catalyst Game Labs

[Critias]

Part of the problem is likely that it might not even be up to CGL, depending on the artwork being used.  There's a whole tangled mess of licensing issues, different publishers over the years, varying contract specifications with different artists, and blah blah blah, I'm sure. 

[a very angery werefox]

yeah no one cook ownes this pot. hard to say who ownes what after 25 years.

[Crunch]

Topps owns the rights to the table top game. CGL is the licensee. Microsoft owns all of the computer rights and licenses them to Smith Tinker who in turn licences them to the game developers.

[Latt_Ice]

Thank you for the replies.

Hopefully there will be some clearer resolution in the future.