Armybuilder

Where do you get the idea that they are techically illegal? If they were illegal, GW would have taken legal action a long time ago. The program Armybuilder is made for all kinds of games. The datafiles for Warhammer Fantasy and 40K are made by volunteers to keep it all legal.

Army Builder 2.2. Fantasy only. Don't know if there's a place where 40K files are available:

http://www.wolflair.com/rightframe.php?context=more
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anarchistica/summary

I don't know if the new Lizardmen-datafile is already included.

I myself use the registered version AB 3.1

 

They give people the rules and points values for the game without having to pay anything, in the same way it is a breach of GW IP laws to post points values etc on forums. The Great Unclean One and a newer version indeed have been shut down because of IP breach.

The actual program Army Builder is most certainly not illegal, you can do what you like with it. The problem is creating and giving out the rules/points values to people for free.

There are the new LM in AB 2.2 and they seem mostly without errors already, which is nice.

 

ArmyRoster.com was originally shut down, remember.

 

Yes, but that was because they also provided the datafiles. There's still a difference between commercially and non-commercially providing Intellectual Property. Armybuilder has changed its concept by dividing the program from the datafiles. Wolflair.com is not making money on GW-files. Those are made by volunteers who are not commercially using the datafiles.
If GW can prove they lose money because of volunteers making datafiles there might be some legal ruling when they make it a case at court. Till then there's nothing illegal about Armybuilder and the datafiles.

It's too bad that Games Workshop failed to make its own 'armybuilder'. They tried and failed. Otherwise i might have bought theirs.

 

Commercial or non commercial use doesn't really matter... There are lots and lots of people that burn games and movies and upload them onto torrent sites or whatever, they get no money out of it, the site gets no money out of it, yet it is still illegal. It is intellectual property in the case of GW rules so they cannot be distributed.

When I closed the thread, I verified with Sammy too. It is not likely that it would have been a big problem, but most forums tend to err on the side of caution and not allow such borderline things. Particularly since a few sites indeed have been shut down.

 

There is an interesting story behind ArmyBuilder and GamesWorkshop, you should read up on it. It would explain alot of the hostility between the two parties.

Using/talking/watever in regards to ArmyBuilder is 100% legal and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Whatever the mods of this forum decide to do is their choice however.

 

In fact you will notice in the original quoted post that I did direct the OP to army builder, and you are right that there is nothing wrong with the program as a whole. I was aiming to stop the discussion of the online ones, a couple of which got shut down by GW as mentioned in this thread.

It is indeed up to Sammy as to what can and cannot be discussed. I will get his attention to look here. IMO no links to online army builders that straight give rules etc, army builder is fine as long as you aren't talking about pirating it and the forum still keeps a policy of not posting rules/points values which stands. That is my 2 cents though.

 

I didn't read much into the ArmyRoster threads, only the one where they got hit by GW. What I did take on board, however, is that a lot of people online who were "experts" on IP law were giving them all this gumpf about what was and wasn't legal and they still got done all the same. So forgive me if I take anything someone posts on a forum with a pinch of salt. Not to offend anyone mind, it's just the way it is.

When a thread is closed, it means the discussion is over. Strewart did link the ORIGINAL op to the army builder site after all. To open a new thread with his quote is akin to saying "hey, I know you locked the thread, but I'm gonna respond all the same", and it's bad forum etiquette. Not to mention a little rude to the mods who do a good job at keeping this site the awesome place it is.

So with respect, thread closed