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View Full Version : Copyright Issues: Translating the SRD, yes or no?



Gastronomie
2016-11-23, 10:38 AM
So, I live in Japan and I'm Japanese. I and some internet friends were talking about translating the Systems Reference Document (SRD) (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd) that is available for free on the WotC official website for D&D 5e. This includes:
Data for most races (one sub-type each)
Data for one archetype each for the 12 classes
Lots of statblocks from the MM
Lots of magic items from the MM
And much, much more!

Now, the reason we want to translate this is not to use with friends - it's to distribute for free on the internet.

If all this can be viewed in Japanese for free, much more people in the Japanese table-talk region will be able to take a look at it. This will increase the number of potential D&D'ers in Japan (the number currently being depressingly low), and that's obviously a good thing for us.

The problem is, we're not sure if this is okay to translate and distribute this for free. (Or if it's okay to do it under certain circumstances, like copy-pasting the copyright stuff into the free PDF.)

I'm not an expert at copyright issues, and my English is really not that advanced (I grew up in America, but I was only elementary when I moved back to Japan). I honestly have no idea what the copyright stuff says.

I supposed that instead of randomly guessing stuff between just the two of us, we should ask the more smart people here for insight on whether this is okay or not okay. I imagine some people here have posted stuff on the DM's Guild, and perhaps that experience may help us too.

Thank you for reading, and if you have any insight on this matter, please tell me about it.

Jormengand
2016-11-23, 10:45 AM
We can't give legal advice on this forum. All I can tell you is to read the text of the open game license itself to get an idea.

LibraryOgre
2016-11-23, 11:12 AM
The Mod Wonder: As mentioned, we can't give legal advice on this forum. Your best bet would be to contact Wizards of the Coast directly and enquire with them.