Darn You, Wotc!!!

[Realms of Chaos]

I'm sure that this topic has already come up but I just want to put it out there in case other people don't know to start panicking yet. It seems that WotC has started trimming its 3rd edition archives, which makes me a bit sad.

I can't say what has been lost so far but It's fair to say that any pre-4e material that made its way into WotC's Dragon magazine is now gone, meaning no 3.5 epic destinies (though there's a screenshot here and no material for epic binders (please tell me that someone out there either took a snapshot or has found one. please. ).

It was pretty clear from the birth of 4e that stuff like this was going to happen so it's just a matter of time before they cut down those old archives as well. I've been running through this guide for free DnD but it is far from perfect, missing the more informative web enhancements, epic materials, a few PrCs, some monsters, spells, and a good deal of psionic feats/powers and other such goodies.

Does anybody out there have a list of pertinent links to help those of us scrambling to save all we can find the most crunchy info to preserve it for future campaigns? If not, is there anyone else out there willing to join me in the quest of scrounging through the WotC site?

[Skorj]

If they're going to take it down, they could at least make it open.

Does the Wayback Machine help you at all? Terribly slow, but it's saved me more than once when something like this happened!

[hamlet]

This isn't entirely new.

WOTC cut out the previous edition archives for the old AD&D stuff a few months ago. Guess they were just moving up the line.

[Snake-Aes]

Cached!
(damn. swordsaged by the OP)

[Matthew]

Depressingly familiar, indeed. I remember I went through their entire map archive just after the change to D20/4e, and that was work enough! For what it is worth, the archives are located here, and seem relatively complete by year at this point. I recall many sub archives have little a little "d" for easier downloading, I know I have collected a few articles that way. [edit] Oh, I see. The links within their own website are broken. Wonderful.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Thanks for the heads up. I’m getting what I can right now, while it’s available.

[AslanCross]

Thanks for the heads up. I’m getting what I can right now, while it’s available.

Likewise. I'm glad I was able to download a lot of the old PDF adventures.

[Jack_Simth]

I Scrapbooked the Web Enhancement Archive, Indexes, and Downloads April 25th 2009, seeing that this would happen sooner or later. I suppose I could post it somewhere if someone had the web space for it, but, err... what in the world is the copyright situation on doing something like that?

[Prime32]

{Scrubbed}

[Realms of Chaos]

If any of you all-powerful moderators (or legal experts) stumble across this thread, could you please clarify this issue for us?

On the one hand, the information was once plainly and freely available, meaning that anyone could copy it and do whatever they want with it. Did their action of taking it down tantamount to forebidding the sharing of that information for that time and for the future? Is it even possible to withdraw information like that (I've never been too clear on that)?

I'm not suggesting at all that we somehow associate giantitp with the sharing of such files even if it is legal but some clarity on this matter would really help.

[Jarian]

I was wondering what was happening. I looked for the Epic Destinies yesterday and got redirected to the main page.

Bleh, I say. Bleh!

[lsfreak]

If any of you all-powerful moderators (or legal experts) stumble across this thread, could you please clarify this issue for us?

The best anyone can say is whether or not it's forum-legal. Forum rules disallow giving legal advice. My intuition is that it's not forum-legal, though, on the chance it might bring legal problems for The Giant.

[Zherog]

Thanks for the heads up...

[Shhalahr Windrider]

It’s copyrighted material whether or not it is on a website.

I’m not going to say anymore, lest it cross the line into “legal advice”.

[LOTRfan]

Time to start copying/pasting..... How much time do we have?

[Thurbane]

Damn... inevitable, I suppose, but still disappointing.

Yep, a community effort to save as much as possible is the best course of action now.

I Scrapbooked the Web Enhancement Archive, Indexes, and Downloads April 25th 2009, seeing that this would happen sooner or later. I suppose I could post it somewhere if someone had the web space for it, but, err... what in the world is the copyright situation on doing something like that?

Without discussing legal issues here, I would imagine the best course of action would be to contact WotC cust-serv and ask them what is and isn't acceptable.

[Lord Vukodlak]

It should be noted that epic destinies was a 2008 article probably one of the last things they did for 3.5. The article was originally in dragon magazine 363.
Also most articles have an option to download it so copy paste might not be necessary in many cases.

Here's the reality of the situation someone will download those archives, someone will make their contents available. Regardless of what wizard says.
Show of hands[don't actually respond] who here still uses Ema's character sheets despite wizards shutting the site down?

[BeholderSlayer]

I actually have a good portion of the stuff already downloaded, not counting maps and fluff stuff. Monsters, spells, items, classes...have a good portion of it and still going. I'll have to organize it in folders later.

[Thajocoth]

So... It's not JUST their 4e customers that they're screwing over lately? (They've delayed updating their Character Builder for over a month... A cornerstone of the game for many players who don't want to spend hours pouring through books... Right when they've made a lot of edits and added features for a new setting, which have been very looked forward too since the books came out. I expected this thread to be about that.)

[Forged Fury]

Ooh... someone make sure to grab the web enhancements with the Wild Cohort feat, the Cityscape web enhancements with all the nifty ACFs, and the Dragonmarked web enhancement with the Child of Khyber PrC

[BeholderSlayer]

Ooh... someone make sure to grab the web enhancements with the Wild Cohort feat, the Cityscape web enhancements with all the nifty ACFs, and the Dragonmarked web enhancement with the Child of Khyber PrC

taking orders, make your requests quick or forever hold your peace

[Forged Fury]

I actually just took my own advice and pulled them down, thanks though!

Note: the newer articles can be downloaded as PDFs. The old ones need to be saved as web pages (or PDFs if you have a print-to-PDF converter available).

[Lev]

WotC is just another corp.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

I think I’ve got everything that’s really important to me.

[Thugorp]

I think its o.k., besides the fact that it was available on-line(which in most lawsuits has =ed open for the public forever) 3.5 D&D was all made under the open game license(which you can read everything about in the back of just about any d20 publication) in other words, all of the d20 material(I believe) is up for grabs. EXCEPT THINGS THAT ARE TRADEMARKED, OR COPYRIGHTED make sure that the things you post aren't!(it should say it somewhere if it is)

[Shhalahr Windrider]

I think its o.k., besides the fact that it was available on-line(which in most lawsuits has =ed open for the public forever) 3.5 D&D was all made under the open game license(which you can read everything about in the back of just about any d20 publication) in other words, all of the d20 material(I believe) is up for grabs. EXCEPT THINGS THAT ARE TRADEMARKED, OR COPYRIGHTED make sure that the things you post aren't!(it should say it somewhere if it is)

Wrong.

Only items that are explicitly released under the OGC are Open Material. The only things Wizards ever released under OGC is the SRD and the bulk of Unearthed Arcana. There might be a few OGC items on the website if you look really hard, but you have to look for something that states “This is Open Game Content” and provides a link to the Open Game License. If it doesn’t have those, it’s not OGC.

[Roc Ness]

I have the Swiftblade and the Mist Dragon saved in a Word Doc...

[Thugorp]

Actually, I remember, when they first changed there forum over, I was on it, puting a new class up... The sight went down for nightly maintenance(I was upset). When it came back up, not only did it look crappy, and was hard to get around. When I finally found my way back to the boards, almost all of the PEACH orchards had been erased! I was so pissed. I saved the rest of what ws there.

I Actually have dozens of things form the old WoTC boards. If any one wants any of the old classes or creatures(home brewed) there is a decent chance that I have it. just ask and I will give it over. :-)

OH AND GOOD GOING GUYS I look forward to eventually using the combined archive made form your efforts, if you need any particular things archived, I wold be more than happy to take a catagory of things to save for you. :-)

[Thugorp]

Wrong.

Only items that are explicitly released under the OGC are Open Material. The only things Wizards ever released under OGC is the SRD and the bulk of Unearthed Arcana. There might be a few OGC items on the website if you look really hard, but you have to look for something that states “This is Open Game Content” and provides a link to the Open Game License. If it doesn’t have those, it’s not OGC.

Are you sure? Cause, the SRD contains the three core books and I am pretty sure that those three books SPOSIFICALY are off limits to thrid partys, that is to say they can't reprint that stuff in there own books... It was sort of the point of the OGL everyone makes stuff for D20, but everyone has to buy WoCT's first three books.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: Regrettable, but well-within WotC's rights. We can't give you legal advice on what to do about it, nor can posters give each other such advice here. Nor do we want to be come the hotspot for illegal or IP infringing activity. As you know, we are particularly cautious about such things. I'm going to close this thread now, because it's already crossed the line between individual action and people discussing sharing the intellectual property of others.