Trying to Get Rob to Respond

Hi Rob. As you might hopefully recall, 4 or 5 days ago I sent you the preliminary results of a survey I've been conducting on rec.games.frp.dnd regarding MPGN's support for TSR's policy. So far, the consensus seems to be that MPGN ought not to support TSR. People seem to be saying, better to remove the archive than give in on this issue. Now, I offered you the opportunity to say something directly to the respondents of this survey so that I could include your statement in the next update. Well, you never replied, so I'm asking you again. Would you like to say anything, if just for the record, or do you think so little of us that we are to be ignored?

Hi Jim, Please don't take this as a put off or anything, but we have rapidly approaching deadline to finish up a bunch of games for the online service and messages that I have to put some thought into are back-burnered for a while. I haven't forgot you and I will give you a decent response, its just gonna be a while.

Okay, I'll just send out the survey update as it and include your comments in the next update. No biggie. I was just worried that you'd fallen into the policy-of-silence which TSR seems to have adopted. No, really, I'm serious. Here... just for your amusement, check this out: I know, it's not a very entertaining letter, however, I just wanted to get a clarification on a really innocuous case. Well, it's been a week now, and no word from Rob Repp. Here's another example, the last one I'll inflict upon you today. Take care, and please make sure you never become like this. -jimv

Hi Jim. I still am under quite a bit of crunch, but there are a couple of things I did want to address. Anyone has the right to boycott the TSR archive, our site, or both. However many people get use from the archive, and if we close down, then we do a disservice to those who use the site. I just want to point out that we have a lot of different areas for submissions beyond TSR, and we want to archive different gaming systems as well.

> Hi Jim. I still am under quite a bit of crunch, but there are a couple of > things I did want to address. Okay. > Anyone has the right to boycott the TSR archive, our site, or both. I think this pretty much goes without saying. > However many people get use from the archive, and if we close down, then we > do a disservice to those who use the site. I think everyone who has voted on this issue is also well aware of this. I am still getting responses, by the way, and the vast majority of people are telling me that they'd prefer to see MPGN close down the AD&D portion of it's archive rather than support, and hence lend legitimacy to, TSR's policy. > I just want to point out that we have a lot of different areas for > submissions beyond TSR, and we want to archive different gaming systems as > well. I don't think anyone is suggesting you remove the entire archive... just the portion which relates to TSR games, particularly AD&D. Now, I'm about to release another update, and maybe this time we'll get some votes going the other way. And then again, maybe not. I think that right now, the vast majority of people on the Internet who are familiar with this issue are strongly against MPGN's acquiescence of TSR's policy. If the preliminary results of this survey are to be believed, people would much rather that you simply inform TSR (and rec.games.frp.dnd) that due to your professional ethics, and due to the statements of people who have responded to this survey, that you can no longer, in good conscience, continue to support TSR's policy, and that for these reasons, in order to run a gaming archive that will hopefully never be sued by TSR or anybody else, that you've decided to remove the AD&D/TSR portion of MPGN's archive by a specified future date, barring any public/usenet outcry during the interim for you to revert to your former stance on this issue. Of course, if you actually did what I am suggesting (and what the vast majority of survey respondents have suggested), then there would no doubt be some outcry, but you'd have to measure that against all the people patting you on the back and thanking you for finally rejecting TSR's policy and sending a clear message to TSR that the majority of gamers on the Internet will not abide by TSR's "disclaimer" as it is currently written. Now, to be perfectly open with you, as I have tried to be from the very start of our conversations, I don't know for an absolute fact that this is the right thing for you to do. Although I think rejecting TSR's policy would be the right thing for you to do, I am not so certain of it that you could not persuade me to believe otherwise (being the relatively fickle personage that I am). You know our arguments. We would like to hear yours. I want to include your point of view in the next update, but please respond to the issues that we are raising. For instance, do you or do you not believe that TSR's policy is legally questionable? Is there any chance, in your mind, that they are overstepping the bounds of legitimate copyright/trademark protection? Do you have any moral qualms, whatsoever, about having taken material off other ftp sites and having slapped TSR's "disclaimer" on the directories which contain that material? Do you see how that action is a support of their policy? (I realize that you had little choice in the matter, other than to remove the material altogether, or risk incurring the wrath of TSR's legal department, so please don't think this is an indictment.) If you agree that it is a support of their policy, do you feel that it in any way helps legitimize or otherwise casts a cloak of normalcy or acceptance around TSR's "disclaimer"? If so, do you think that by doing this, you may, in fact, be a party to perpetuating this sort of policy? If you are, in fact, helping to perpetuating this sort of policy, do you think that this will be to the benefit of roleplayers, gamemasters, and various assorted RPG enthusiasts... or might it be to their collective and long-term detriment? These, Rob, are the sort of questions you need to address. By continuing to ignore them, you are playing the part of a brick wall, and I personally think that you deserve better than that. I am very sorry that you got sandwiched by all this, but now that you are, you could do yourself and a lot of other people a favor by accepting that fact, being honest about it, and simply taking our points head on and, above all else, with an open mind. I look forward to hearing from you... jimv@cs.ucr.edu

Hi Jim. I will not be able to address your questions until the middle of March. Secondly, please start at this question and the ones that follow it and rewrite it so that I understand it. What is "it" (if you agree that "it" is a...) If you agree that it is a support of their policy, do you feel that it in any way helps legitimize or otherwise casts a cloak of normalcy or acceptance around TSR's "disclaimer"?

Hi Rob, I am reproducing part of the last message I sent, however, I have edited it a little to try to make the questions less ambiguous. Basically, the questions are simply trying to illustrate a line of logic which the majority of the survey respondents seem to have accepted. What I am looking for is a statement from you that will let everyone know that you've consider this line of reasoning, that you understand it, and that you either agree or disagree with it (your choice, obviously), and why (i.e., why we are justified in asking MPGN to close its doors to TSR material, or why we are wrong in making that request). If you think we are right in making that request, and you choose to keep the AD&D section open anyway, we would like to hear your rationale for doing so, and whether or not there is any compromise that both sides can reach. For example, perhaps you could keep the stuff for which you have explicit permission from the author(s) to include the TSR disclaimer, but remove the files you culled from greyhawk and elsewhere for which the permission is assumed rather than explicitly given. I admit, this is splitting hairs, and it won't satisfy everyone, but at least it would show a good faith attempt upon your part to abide by the will of the community you are attempting to serve (which, by the way, is very much in question at this point in time). Okay, here's that line of reasoning I promised. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob, you know our arguments. Now, we would like to hear yours. I want to include your point of view in the next update, but please respond to the issues that we are raising. For instance, do you or do you not believe that TSR's policy is legally questionable? Is there any chance, in your mind, that TSR is overstepping the bounds of legitimate copyright/trademark protection? Do you have any moral qualms, whatsoever, about having taken material off other ftp sites and having slapped TSR's "disclaimer" on the directories which contain that material? Do you see how that action is a support of their policy? (I realize that you had little choice in the matter, other than to remove the material altogether, or risk incurring the wrath of TSR's legal department, so please don't think this is an indictment.) Whether or not you feel that your actions (i.e. putting TSR's disclaimer on the directories which contain material culled from greyhawk and elsewhere) are a support of TSR's policy, do you feel that these actions in any way help legitimize or otherwise cast a cloak of normalcy or acceptance around TSR's "disclaimer"? If your actions are either a support of TSR's policy, or if they cast this "cloak of legitimization/normalcy" over TSR's policy, do you think that you may, in fact, be a party to perpetuating this sort of policy which TSR has erected with respect to internet-distributed, fan-authored products related to its AD&D roleplaying system? To put it another way, do you think that legitimizing a questionable policy will encourage other RPG publishers to come out with similar policies? If you are, in fact, helping to perpetuate this sort of policy, do you think that doing so will be to the benefit of roleplayers, gamemasters, and various assorted RPG enthusiasts... or might it be to their collective and long-term detriment?