Forum:Problems with Warhammer 40k fanon wiki

I noticed a few problem with your 40k fanon wiki that could potentially be a legal problem. I'm not going through anything formal because I don't care enough and I don't think it's an imminent legal problem.

That wiki completely lacks disclaimers attributing ownership of its content to Games Workshop. In addition, they're borderline claiming ownership of their content, and they have the Creative Commons label, which is absolutely incorrect; their content is owned by GW and cannot be freely licensed. They have a template called "property" where I left them a message that prominently claims ownership of the article to the author, not GW. I also contacted one of their bureaucrats, who has completely ignored me.

Please don't give the arrogent "Special:Contact" link that I've been given many times. I'm not going to do it. This is your problem, not mine. If you can't be bothered to take action without me taking more action, than you obviously don't care enough to do anything. I'm not trying to be harsh; I just want you to know how rude it is when I post sth and get told off that I need to post it somewhere else.


 * http://warhammer40kfanon.wikia.com/wiki/Template_talk:Property
 * http://warhammer40kfanon.wikia.com/wiki/User_talk:Cal_XD#Possibly_serious_issue

Inquisitor Sasha Ehrenstein des Ordo Scharzenkommando 04:27, December 7, 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi, just to clarify, copyright issues on the Warhammer 40k Fanon wiki are a local issue. These forums here on Community Central are for user to user support. No users on Community Central have any say or authority regarding local issues on different wiki or the content of said wiki, so there is really nothing we can do about the issue besides give you advice.


 * I see that you've already spoken to the local admins, which is good. The only other group who may actually be able to address the issue is Wikia staff. If you want to reach Wikia staff, Special:Contact is the best way to do so as it is their official channel for user support and they do reply to all messages sent there within a few business days at the most.


 * If you are in fact a representative of Game Workshops, or the copyright owner whose rights are actually being infringed, you may send a DMCA takedown notice to Wikia's designated copyright agent, as specified in the Terms of Use.


 * Thanks for your response. And thanks for saying something in addition to the link (it's fine, since it was relevant and it wasn't the only thing you posted) I'm not from GW; I'm just from another 40k website and saw that this wiki doesn't comply with the document that GW has about unofficial websites.  It seems like they encourage this sort of development of the hobby, but it also seems like the people at the wiki are really pushing things; I had a conversation with someone at Dakka Dakka (who may have been a user there) who was arguing that asserting ownership over the derivative work was totally justified.  A DMCA is what I'm hoping they can avoid, which I'm sure would be issued for the whole wiki if they're blatantly violating the policy.
 * http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=&section=&pIndex=3&aId=3900002&start=4&multiPageMode=true
 * Inquisitor Sasha Ehrenstein des Ordo Scharzenkommando 06:10, December 7, 2012 (UTC)


 * Whatever "document that GW has about unofficial websites" -- it is not binding here on Wikia and the admins of the Warhammer 40k fanon wiki are under no obligation to comply with it. They can comply with it if they choose to, but they are not required to do so. Wikia wikis are only required to follow Wikia's Terms of Use and applicable laws regarding copyright, licensing, etc. Any argument about the wiki not complying with Game Workshop policy has no solid ground to stand on.


 * The only real issue here would be copyright infringement. If that's what you're worried about, the relevant parties are 1) Wikia staff, since Wikia hosts the wiki, 2) the party whose rights are actually being infringed (GW) and 3) users of the Warhammer 40k fanon wiki. If you don't belong to one of these parties - as I do not - you're welcome to notify them of the issue, but you are not responsible for their actions and you should also respect their right to deal with it in the manner of their choosing.