Games Workshop and US Copyright

I've been reading about copyright recently and wondering if it's okay to be posting some rules from various codexes and the main rulebook online.

Apparently it is. But! I cannot (or you cannot if you're going to do it too) post the rules verbatim you can say, "Furious Charge gives you +1S when you charge" but you can't use the exact wording as it appears in the core rulebook. This is known as expression of game rules and is registerable for trademark. Whether or not GW has registered this stuff, I don't know. I do know that I, or anyone else for that matter, can post their rules online as long as they don't use the exact wording as it appears in the rule book. That's why certain games have very similar knock-off versions that use the same rules; they're just worded differently. If you look at Dog-opoly, for example, it's almost an exact replica of Monopoly but each use different wording of the rules (and different square names) to create what the copyright office considers a unique enough game to avoid infringement. That's why you can have Dog Place and Dog Walk replace Park Place and Board Walk without infringement because even though they are essentially the exact same thing it's the wording that counts.

So, just to wrap it all up: You can post rules, just not with GW's wording. Neat!


For those interested in the documentation:
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html

High Elves Conversion Idea

For those of you into Warhammer Fantasy there's a simple conversion you can do to save yourself a ton of money and still have mounted flying elves.

1. Get and Elf (and kind of elf mini works)
2. Get a balancing bird toy (example: Birds, same size for $4)
3. Glue them together.
4. Laugh about saving ~$50

And there you have it. Balancing birds are also pretty cool because you can glue them by the beak to a base and they won't fall over! :O

He should be using his middle finger