I am probably the biggest Warhammer nerd out there.
I just finished painting some Chaos Wordbearers.

I can understand both sides of this, actually.
Games workshop have a good business model partly because they protect it so well.

Originally posted by CodyOutlaw
Games workshop have a good business model partly because they protect it so well.

I'm sure with time, they may be fighting a losing battle. I'm not certain about it, but following the trends with current online sharing methods, it wouldn't be hard to copy their designs, really.

All someone would have to do, is compile a collection of war-hammer units, zip it, and put it all over the web, and that's all, or at least a large portion of games workshop's work.
It wouldn't even be a large file, either. Every figurine of a certain race would probably dwarf that of a movie file, making it shockingly easy, and decrease the time for "peer spy's" to hone in on other peers.
They would find it impossible to police.

I wonder what effect it would have on the model's value? haha. I've always sort of liked them because they were a bit pricey. That does sound a bit crazy, or maybe that's just me.

Not sure what to make of this as I've not checked it properly yet, was a big fan of this game as a kid though! Was also surprised to realise that I really liked the Dawn of War game a few years back. Actually just thinking about it makes me want to check out some of the other games in that series.

As a kid I was well into Slaanesh, but now I'd definitely play Eldar! My massive geekery has recently passed to Magic The Gathering Online though and I have a feeling I'll be sticking with it for a long time to come.

*pumps nerd fist in the air*

Would the only choice for modelers be to create totally different designs? Or would they be then stopped from advertising for what games they are made?

When you see the quality of some mods made by the fans, I think it sometimes put to shame the creators... But I know for them it's a question of business, and money.

Could the example of modified cars, and the market of modified replacement parts, serve as a defense basis for this type of case? I never heard of a car manufacturer suing one of its customer for modifying a vehicle...

E-world businesses are so Fecukd Above...

In the CG world we've dealt with this before, except in the case I'm thinking of, and everyone will have to give me a day to find the forum post on it, Lockheed-Martin had told a digital artist that their rendition of one of their planes was in violation of the DMCA. It took a while and a LOT of arguing with Lockheed and they finally backed down, to my knowledge that was the last time that a company had done something such...

However it's always in the backs of our mind as we sometimes reproduce designs, and try to make them faithful to their originals that the next time it may be Paramount or Fox telling us that we can no longer produce a design.

The general rule of thumb has been - if you make it for fun and distribute the CG mesh for free there's no harm and no foul. If you start charging for a copyrighted design, then watch out and get a lawyer..

Capitalism at it's most evilness.

This is why simple Consistency has been impossible to attain in a genre like Star Trek. One guy comes out with a specific ship design and gives it a class name. Another guy likes it and wants to use it but there's that Name in the way so he gives it a different class name. Another guy comes along and uses it, but to get away with not "stealing" royalties he draws it slightly differently to the point where it can belong to neither of the previous two class designations. So all continuity is screwed up.

Then there's the whole clashing of Star Trek "universes" which includes timelines, ship design theories, and tech.
Treknical Fandom vs. FASA vs. Star Fleet Battles etc. then some 'Canon' twit with a title comes along and fingers All of them and does things His Way--decades After these have become ingrained into Trekkers' hearts.

Originally posted by NowanKenubi
I never heard of a car manufacturer suing one of its customer for modifying a vehicle...

E-world businesses are so Fecukd Above...

That, they are. But as i work in an auto trade, i see the prices of genuine interior parts on a pretty regular basis.

To give you some sort of idea... something as simple as a plastic cover that slides over a door seal on the door step of a car, can cost over 100 dollars, and it doesn't have to be seeing it's JUST a piece of plastic.

But they can charge that price, because it is made by ford for their vehicles.

And in the case of replacement by owner or mechanic, i think it would be greatly considered building a non genuine replica.

Originally posted by robhines
As a kid I was well into Slaanesh, but now I'd definitely play Eldar!

haha i played wood elves in the original warhammer when i was around 12, but there was one good shop right in the city that required
a) more pocket money from my dad; and
b) a means of transport

It wasn't worth it haha, i had a few really good models, but was able to buy more when a lord of the rings version of the game came out.

Originally posted by vkey08
The general rule of thumb has been - if you make it for fun and distribute the CG mesh for free there's no harm and no foul. If you start charging for a copyrighted design, then watch out and get a lawyer..

Well that's what i always thought! It sort of limits people's creativity, and just paves the way for people keeping designs for themselves and charging for them - pushing us more into capitalistic behaviour where everything has a price tag.

And at the end of the day, some are left with no choice in these times where people aren't exactly "millionaires"

Games workshop and the 40k hobby helped me stop drinking so I am kinda in their debt so to say.

I am all for modifying designs, from "kit bashing" to full conversions, but this is wrong.

3D printers are going to lead to many lawsuits involving IP rights. Why buy a product when you can get it cheaper somewhere else. Games Workshop realizes this and limits (does not share) its intelectual property rights. Why should they? How much money have they invested in sculpters, game designers, writers, production equipment, and everything else involved in the game?

Buy their product or find another game, solution is simple.

Personally I always thought that GWs stuff was way overpriced for what it was and a little too cartoony for my tastes.

We did enjoy our WHFRP, though and did get into the armies as well, my nuddy always played orcs and his army was called "The Green Tide" whereas I favored dwarves and named my army "The rock Rumblers" cheesy I know, but we were a lot younger.

Played tons of D&D too, all the way back to the Red Box (dating myself here) as well as Traveller (I sure wish a company would come out with a CRPG based on Traveller) and who could forget Blood Bowl?

What would happen if this guy made his own design from scratch but used GW's rules to play the actual battles?

Since, as mentioned above, I never like GWs figures, we usually used various D&D figures for our PCs. Would we be facing the possibility of a GW goonsquad barging in on our gaming session if we were using figures of our own design and their rule set?

I'm actually surprised. GW has always been one to embrace their fans innovations. When a couple of fans from Italy tried to convert the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay to 40k it prompted them to finally make Dark Heresy. So if they're actually suing over this it must mean it's a legitimate threat to their continued existence.