What I just don't understand is why people are concerned about money, the cards being sold, etc. From what I can gather, the V-Sets are solely intellectual property available to the public for free and are not intended to generate any revenue. Since the V-Sets are not being sold (and I don't think are intended to be sold) and are public material, there shouldn't be any problem whatsoever with copyright infringements or anything else like that. Now, if the V-Sets were to become exclusive to SWMGamers.com (or are they, since they have been removed from BlooMilk?), then I can see how a potential problem could arise; the sets are exclusive to one website, so some of the traffic generated by that website is only coming to the site for the V-Sets and, since traffic generates revenue because of the ads on the site, then it can be argued (in a very indirect way that really doesn't even seem valid) that the V-Sets themselves were generating revenue. In this instance, any revenue generated would still only be a byproduct of the V-Sets, not from selling or distributing the V-Sets themselves (which would still be intellectual property that is free to the public), so I still don't see how there are any legal issues here.

Someone please enlighten me if I'm wrong.

That's not really how it works. Images, characters, artwork, pretty much EVERYTHING from the Star Wars universe are the property of LFL. Technically the squad builder on this website is copyright infringement. Every single fan-based Star Wars page using Star Wars logos without permission from LFL are committing copyright infringement, regardless of whether or not anyone is making any money off of it.

Now, LFL generally doesn't care about all that. They have bigger fish to fry so to speak than worrying about every website on the internet that uses their IP. But it's always a potential problem. As Lobostele has said, the 501st get away with it because of their charity work, and because LFL hasn't really had a reason yet to shut them down. But they very easily could be shut down. Shinja could get a cease and desist from LFL tomorrow telling him to remove all infringing material from Bloomilk.

The same thing goes for the v-sets. As long as the Rebel logo is on the Rebel cards, they are infringing on LFL's copyright. Now, LFL probably won't care; as I said, they pretty much never do. If they did care they probably would have done something by now. There is also pretty good precedent with the SWTCG v-sets (which LFL is very aware of and actually communicates with, and has no problem with).

However, LFL does tend to keep an eye on exactly how their IP is being used. They usually just don't mind how it's being used. That doesn't mean they don't care. For example, there are certain things that the SWTCG Players Committee has wanted to do that has been vetoed by LFL. If they had tried to do it anyway, they would probably have gotten that cease and desist, and then gotten sued into oblivion if they ignored that.

And that brings us to Dean's wary attitude towards sharing things with Bloomilk. It's possible for someone here to do something stupid with the v-sets that gets LFL's attention (like the SWTCG PC). Dean doesn't trust that Bloomlk will appropriately respond to a reaction like that from LFL. Lets say they create a v-set card that LFL doesn't like for some reason, and it got previewed on Bloomilk. LFL tells Dean that it has to be taken down. Dean tries to get Bloomilk to remove it, but they don't (this is far from unlikely, the Bloomilk higher-ups (especially Shinja) have been very hard from Dean to get a hold of). LFL notices that it's still up, and they now shut down the entire v-set operation.

That is why the v-set is only being shared with people and places that can be very fully trusted. It's NOT public IP, it's LFL's IP, and that HAS to be respected. Bloomilk as a whole has been less than respectful a number of times, so why should they be expected to be respectful when a problem DOES arise?

NickName, does this accurately summarize what you're saying:

Legally speaking, the Vsets are fan content that we all assume LFL will ignore based on either their history of ignoring fan content, or possibly a verbal agreement from a rep at LFL. Because the Vsets are fan content without a valid copyright, there is no legal reason why BlooMilk couldn't put the Vsets up - assuming LFL continues to ignore them. BlooMilk refrains from doing so just to honor another's wishes. Putting the Vsets on BlooMilk would not change the status of the Vsets - they would still be fan content that LFL would ignore.

Did I misunderstand you?

To be fair, if LFL guns for Gamers, they would be gunning for Bloomilk as well. It is a more valid concern than what I thought when I first saw the request.

I will also say that I think the super moderator thing has a bit of a technological issue. I'm not sure what the admin tools look like, but I do know that the forums and site are not phpbb.

But the revenue gained through those means would have to at least be equal to the cost of litigation for LFL to pursue a Cease and Desist order.

How much does something like this cost to file? I'm just curious because if I remember correctly Jedicartographer and others received a Cease and Desist order from LFL for their Star Wars Maps, and that seemed like pretty small beans dollar wise. I guess my point is that it seems random what LFL will go after and what they won't.

sometimes if the ip in quesation is close enough they will hunt you down with the jedi legal corps..lucas sues to stop "jedi mind trick" wireless headset