BoW and Wayland split due to GW legal threats

[manrogue]

http://www.beastsofwar.com/games-workshop/announcement/
We’ll start with the Short Story…

Over the past two and a bit years, Beasts of War have received a number of missives from Games Workshop’s legal team (Even one including a request to remove every video containing a GW product).

The difficulty with legal letters, is they cost us a lot of money every time we get one, you could easily pay five hundred to a thousand pounds just to get an appropriate solicitor to read it and give you some advice on how to respond! So they really do take their toll on a small business.

In June of this year, GW published a new set of trade terms that their trade customers must adhere too, in these terms was a clause that effectively meant that, Wayland Games would have been punished for any advance reporting of any GW release by Beasts of War Ltd (Article 9.4) despite Wayland Games not providing any such information to Beasts of War, and despite both companies being separate.

When we asked GW about how this would affect fair use, it was pointed out to us that ‘Fair Use’ did not apply, as this was a contractual matter, and not a copyright matter. This unfortunately means that potentially any demand could be placed upon us by Games Workshop and be considered a contractual matter, and based on the previous demands we have received, we feel that the risks are too great.

As a result we feel there is no option but to abide by terms set out by GW.

From today (Friday 4th October 2013) Beasts of War and Wayland Games are ending the partnership we have worked very hard to create. This is disappointing for us all and we would like to thank the hard working team at Wayland Games for their support, the access to studio space and building the amazing Tabletop Nation venue where we have participated in some memorable events, many of which have been the highlight of our time spent in Essex. And we look forward to attending others in the future!

Myself (Warren), Lloyd and Justin will now be working exclusively for Beasts of War alongside Ben and Sam, as an entirely independent media organisation.

We do this as we feel that Beasts of War and it’s amazing community deserve to have the best opportunity to not only exist, but to thrive.

Despite continued growth even while not being in a position to report on GW products it seems completely alien to us to run Beasts of War and not be able to report on the most dominant game and company in the industry.

We respect Games Workshop, and are using this opportunity to once again reach out to them and say… We do Beasts of War, because we love this hobby and this industry, including your part in it, and at all times we try to treat others fairly and we hope you will do the same.

We will be moving studios over the next few days, we will also be opening a permanent studio space in Nottingham and have quite a long list of cool new things in the pipeline to discuss (and deliver!) with you guys over the coming weeks including of course a new range of content and shows dedicated to 40K etc.

We are excited about this, we want to see the project and community grow and grow, but we’ll be honest with you guys, we are worried and a little afraid for what the future will hold for us all, and so more now than ever, we could be doing with your support!

[Etched Oracle]

GW proving once again that they're about the money and not the customers anymore.

[manrogue]

Yeah, can't understand the reasoning behind this.

It is free publicity and beasts do some pretty good articles every now and then......

It is not like every blog and forum going doesn't get the rumours and pic leaks out before them, 3++ and 40k radio are usually first to the leaks.

It is worth reading the long story in the article to get the full story.

[Stuart]

Great shame, and very short sighted of GW.

[Gareth]

Great shame, and very short sighted of GW.

I wouldn't say that. On multiple occasions they have tried to tie leaks down. BoW haven't helped them, which is fair enough but in return GW are going to hit them in the pocket. I'm not a fan of GW secrecy, but contracts and issues with other companies have led them, to become so. Trying to work out where a leak is occurring isn't short sighted at all. If this was MI5 we were talking about, rather than miniatures company, it would be expected.




*God that's twice in a day, I have somewhat defended GW. Still don't agree with their decisions, but I can understand them.

[Stuart]

I wouldn't say that.

Somehow I knew you'd say that

Trying to work out where a leak is occurring isn't short sighted at all.

That's not what I was referring to as short sighted, more their attempts to quell the coverage (not specifically the leaks) that BoW tried to give them - what essentially amounts to free marketing.

[manrogue]

Lol, as soon as created thread a had a feeling Gaz would come in defence!

Joking aside, the leaks are on Dakka and 3++ well before Beasts even report them. And then changing the terms and agreements specifically to close them down is a pretty harsh.

I could understand if they was at the forefront of the leaks, showing everyone first to get traffic. But they are not, they are pretty slow to be honest and only reporting what other people already know from the forums already mentioned.

The main reason a lot of people go to be BoW is for the feature weeks, when they showcase the new stuff that has become available and go through the various choices available (troops elites etc) with the new codices/army books.

Which is what i find most shocking, as they asked them to remove anything containing a GW mini and means they couldn't do these. I find that massively disappointing as they are quite good and really help sell the mini's (in my opinion of course!).

[manrogue]

Youtube blocked at work, but hopefully can see below. Aparrenty show GW confiscating BoW stuff (cameras etc).



Really have it in for BoW!

[Stuart]

Video doesn't seem to work for me Vince - got a link to it?

EDIT: no worries, found/fixed it.

[Gareth]

Lol, as soon as created thread a had a feeling Gaz would come in defence!

It might have to do with the 5 years of education, studying business models and management decisions. Means I can quite often see the justification behind something, even if my study shows it's the wrong course of action. Causes wonders at the RM, when I predict their decisions will have an effect, and six months later I'm proved right. We're only just getting to that stage with the last batch of money saving exercises, which I predicted would lead to excessive overtime being booked, and one of the senior managers has now been shipped out, due to failing to keep it in hand. Anyway that's beside the point.

Joking aside, the leaks are on Dakka and 3++ well before Beasts even report them. And then changing the terms and agreements specifically to close them down is a pretty harsh.

It's not about being first, it's about being able to hit someone, that could if they chose provide them with the information they want. Leaks coming from an Internet forum, will be quite a bit harder to locate, that via BoW. GW would need to jump through very expensive hoops, to get details of Harry/Hastings etc, if at all they could. Where as, BoW will only put something out that they are 100% certain is correct! otherwise their looking like class A prats. The forums don't make money, at least not much, where as BoW is a generating a sizeable income, through subscriptions and sponsorship. How much of that will be reduced if GW coverage was scrapped? A fairly large chunk I would imagine, and that's what GW are counting on. If BoW coughed up the information, I wouldn't be surprised that, GW still acted like the proverbial pain in the derrière, but by not playing ball, your forcing the evil empire to behave that way. BoW cannot even claim the morale high ground though. The source of the leaks will be committing a NDA breach and therefore a criminal act, by doing so (no matter how minor we consider such a thing,) and by protecting that source BoW are aiding someone commit a crime against a company. And you wonder why, GW are acting like idiots? Just imagine if they posted a video of someone stealing your car, and then refused to disclose any information, about where they got the video from. It's exactly the same thing, even if for some reason people want to view it as different.

And being able to see that has something to do with 5 years of education