Ema's Charsheets Killed by WotC

[Jarrick]

http://www.emass-web.com/index.php

The real St. Valentine's Day massacre...
What kind of cruel joke is this!?
How could this happen?

I used that site constantly, and I swear by the dynamic spellsheets. Is there some legal loophole that wizards is enacting against the best charsheet site on the net, or is this some sort of early april fools joke?

I know someone out there has to know more about this than me.

[NPCMook]

Didn't you have to pay to use Ema's Sheets, and didn't they just kind of give you a lot of the information out of the books? I don't remember I haven't used them in a while.

[Jarrick]

They were free, and didn't give enough information to prevent you from buying the book.

[Eldariel]

Holy... Ok, this just sucks. Now I have to make my own spell lists, power lists, everything... Had I at least had a warning, I would've made a dynamic list with all the existing spells/powers for every class.

[lisiecki]

http://www.emass-web.com/index.php

The real St. Valentine's Day massacre...
What kind of cruel joke is this!?
How could this happen?

I used that site constantly, and I swear by the dynamic spellsheets. Is there some legal loophole that wizards is enacting against the best charsheet site on the net, or is this some sort of early april fools joke?

I know someone out there has to know more about this than me.
I think dead gangsters trumps character sheets...

[Aron Times]

Ema offered a paid service for some character sheets, which violates the terms of the GSL. Had his service stayed free, Wizards probably would've left him alone.

[Jarrick]

I think dead gangsters trumps character sheets...

The gangsters weren't nearly as useful

[mikeejimbo]

Ema offered a paid service for some character sheets, which violates the terms of the GSL. Had his service stayed free, Wizards probably would've left him alone.

I dunno if they would have or not. They did leave him alone for longer than I would have thought. And this happened before Valentine's Day, anyway.

[lisiecki]

The gangsters weren't nearly as useful

But they sounded much cooler, see

[Tsotha-lanti]

Ema offered a paid service for some character sheets, which violates the terms of the GSL. Had his service stayed free, Wizards probably would've left him alone.

Seems pretty clear-cut. A company has no reason to let third parties profit off their property and work; WotC is pretty generous to allow it under specific conditions as is.

[theMycon]

The gangsters weren't nearly as useful

Obviously you've never been to 1920's Chicago. Who else would keep the cops in check so law & order could be maintained?

[kieza]

Ema offered a pay service to let people use his server to store their sheets; this was NOT the target of the legal action. He was essentially trying to get around copyright protection by just rewording the details of Wizards' feats and powers, and they sent him a cease-and-desist letter; not a threat, a request that he stop reproducing their work in spirit if not in letter. He pulled down his entire site rather than just remove the offending material.

The point is, he could have kept producing his work if he didn't insert Wizards' feats and powers into it.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Obviously you've never been to 1920's Chicago. Who else would keep the cops in check so law & order could be maintained?

Seriously! Go rent a time machine and see for yourself!

You'll have to pardon me - I have a lengthy debate scheduled with Plato in an hour. One musn't be "late" to such things :smalltongue:

[FoE]

Seriously! Go rent a time machine and see for yourself!

You'll have to pardon me - I have a lengthy debate scheduled with Plato in an hour. One musn't be "late" to such things :smalltongue:

Whatever you do, don't step on a butterfly! It could turn the future into a bad sci-fi film! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sound_of_Thunder_(film))

[Inyssius Tor]

Whatever you do, don't step on a butterfly! It could turn the future into a bad sci-fi film! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sound_of_Thunder_(film))
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/thumb/e/e8/Demogorgon2.jpg/300px-Demogorgon2.jpg
Run! They're coming!

...mandrills are close enough, right?

[PinkysBrain]

Ema offered a pay service to let people use his server to store their sheets; this was NOT the target of the legal action. He was essentially trying to get around copyright protection by just rewording the details of Wizards' feats and powers, and they sent him a cease-and-desist letter; not a threat, a request that he stop reproducing their work in spirit if not in letter. He pulled down his entire site rather than just remove the offending material.
Yeah, that is pretty much in direct competition with their own Character Builder. I don't think it will do much good though ... I don't think the MSE sets out there are going to disappear any time soon, people really don't want to be tied down to a subscription service it seems.

I think they would have been better off selling the Character Builder.

[Weiser_Cain]

Or package it with the player and DM guide.

[Jarrick]

Why bring down the whole site, though?
Ok, so what's the next best thing? Surely there's some other utility out there that lets you do the same thing, right? I play casters a lot and it's really helpful to be able to compile spell lists based on the books you own and the school you specialize in.

[Epinephrine]

I luckily had become interested in the spell lists, and so I had made excel files from them for basic classes and the set of books we use. But yes, it totally sucks - it was a great resource for quickly looking at what spells are available to X, at Nth level, using a certain set of books. And his maneuver sheets are WAY better than the list in ToB, since it mentions in the summary what the prerequisites are (though it was not without errors, either - it listed 9 maneuvers as the prerequisite for Time Stands Still).

[Prometheus]

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/thumb/e/e8/Demogorgon2.jpg/300px-Demogorgon2.jpg
Run! They're coming!

...mandrills are close enough, right?
Oh no! Plato lived at that critical time when apes were trying to decide between evolving hands with thumbs or evolving tentacles with barbs!

Quick, we've got to rush back to 1960s Japan and prevent the invention of anime! When tentacle sex is normal, who knows what abomination will be unleashed upon the world now!

[Yahzi]

The point is, he could have kept producing his work if he didn't insert Wizards' feats and powers into it.
If he'd just used the SRD, then he would have been safe?

[Grey Paladin]

If he'd just used the SRD, then he would have been safe?

The SRD is 3.5, I believe the edition being discussed in this thread is 4.0 (which, as of now, lacks an OGL SRD).

[skywalker]

I tried some hocus-pocus with the wayback machine.

I never used these, so it's not really worth it to me to try too hard.

But some people seem really upset... Use the Wayback Machine, guys.

[Waspinator]

I tried some hocus-pocus with the wayback machine.

I never used these, so it's not really worth it to me to try too hard.

But some people seem really upset... Use the Wayback Machine, guys.

Could you explain how you did it? I couldn't get the sheets off of the archived version.

[castus]

Same here. I tried multiple dates, too. And none of them had links for the sheets...

[Armethious]

*pinches nose*

This thread should have remained buried, it is beginning to stink!

[Foryn Gilnith]

I was wondering why I had never heard of Ema or anything of the sort. Then I realized that in February of 2009 I wasn't involved in using online D&D utilities.

[Eloel]

*obligatory funny necromancy (de)motivational poster here*

[Killer Angel]

Same here. I tried multiple dates, too. And none of them had links for the sheets...

FYI, if you're wondering 'bout the posts following yours, full of puns regarding necromantic stink, here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/announcement.php?a=1) you'll find the answer. :smallwink:

BTW: if no one has done it yet, I'm going to report the thread to a mod.

[Duke of URL]

The SRD is 3.5, I believe the edition being discussed in this thread is 4.0 (which, as of now, lacks an OGL SRD).

Oh, there's a 4e SRD. It's just pretty much useless. All it provides is a list of names and page numbers that you can use in a "compatible" product. No other details at all.

[averagejoe]

The Mod They Call Me: Thread necromancy.