Larian Studios’s policy and guidelines restrict the selling of fan content or goods for any of its games, including Baldur’s Gate 3…
…The five basic rules for making fan content of Baldur’s Gate 3 and other Larian Studios games are:
- Keep it free.
- Keep it clear it’s fan content.
- Keep it honest.
- Keep it clean
- Keep it legit.
The fourth rule of “Keep it clean” simply means that Larian Studios reserves the right to stop your use of its IP if it deems your content “inappropriate, offensive, damaging, or disparaging.” It isn’t forbidding you from making R-18 content.
“Keep it honest” and “Keep it clear it’s fan content” are very similar. The main rule in question is the first one, in which you cannot sell “fan content to any third parties for any type of compensation.”
If you really want to make Baldur’s Gate 3 fan content, you can do so. You simply cannot do it for profit. This would include putting something behind a paywall, or selling items at a convention. For reference, Larian Studios defines “fan content” as “fanart, videos, stories, screenshots, cosplays, mods, or anything else.” Uploading or giving things away for free are both totally alright.
I’m guessing this may be more a WotC thing than a Larian thing. Still annoyed to hear it, since things like cosplay can be expensive and I imagine they’re things you put your heart into the same as art.
I’ve seen some damn incredible stuff at conventions before, and I’d hate to be deprived of them rather than force the artist to give their work away for free. This also makes commissioned work feel weirdly shaky, depending on what they’re calling a third party?
Wonder if this will turn into a panini situation . Free amigurumi Karlach with every purchase of a $40 pencil.
Eminently reasonable.
This is bog standard IP. You can make fan content all you want. You can make whatever fan content all you want. As long as you aren’t trying to say it’s actual Larian or WOTC content (i.e. don’t label it “Baldur’s Gate 3 Costume”, you’re fine. And you generally can’t directly sell content that is made from another’s IP.
The way most content creators get around that is just not saying it’s directly related to IP. The closer it is and the more litigious the rights holder (Disney and Nintendo, for instance) the more likely they may sue. Most content creators also are fine monetizing videos about games. And patreon is perfectly fine as they are paying for the person to create content, not selling it directly.
Sounds pretty similar to the terms most corporate IPs have. Everyone quietly ignores the issue of commissioned art, and often convention sales of original content derived from the IP; the restriction is primarily in place to allow them to pursue groups that would otherwise pump out a bunch of junk merch to profit from the IP, and to provide evidence, in case of a copyright dispute, that they have been ‘protecting’ their IP by setting up such rules.
Yeah, if these kinds of rules really stopped people from selling art at conventions, I’d have dozens fewer prints waiting to be hung up.
Pretty sure most IP holders do this. Disney isn’t going to let anyone sell Mickey mouse tshirts either.
Yeah like others say, this is on purpose that all companies must do. From what I understand (not a lawyer) they can actually lose their trademark for something if they don’t uphold it for example if they allow everyone to make and sell merch, they could lose the trademark of making merch.
This was a big reason why Nintendo was against parents calling every game system a “Nintendo” as they would lose their rights to that name for example.
The more I hear about Larian from the release to now the more I love them.
Doesn’t this sort of block YouTube monetization?
Generally, no. (Often there are explicit clauses in the EULA for various content creators.) But it’s a grey area, one where other companies have occassionally chosen to enforce copyright claims despite the convention, usually punitively when someone has done something egregious (or just that the company dislikes). (EG, the whole Pointcrow-Nintendo debacle where they threatened to take a youtuber’s channel down because he was promoting a mod he comissioned for Breath of the Wild.)
The fourth rule of “Keep it clean” simply means that Larian Studios reserves the right to stop your use of its IP if it deems your content “inappropriate, offensive, damaging, or disparaging.” It isn’t forbidding you from making R-18 content.
So my fan art of Astarion jackhammering Wyll in the doodoo hole with a throwing dart, while Karlach gives birth to something resembling a cheddar-cheese log with Themberchaud’s tummy-tum is okay?
Edit: Not Bloodhound Gang fans in here, I see.
The fourth rule of “Keep it clean” simply means that Larian Studios reserves the right to stop your use of its IP if it deems your content “inappropriate, offensive, damaging, or disparaging.” It isn’t forbidding you from making R-18 content.
This seems sensible on the surface until you realise that people’s definitions on inappropriate/offensive can vary wildly. Many people consider all R-18 content to be inappropriate, and I’d bet that most companies (Larian/WotC included) would agree.
