This petition is in response to Wizards' 8/6/2009 posting of an official Fan Site Policy:

http://www.wizards.com/fankit/fantoolkitdnd.html

We, the undersigned, believe this policy to be in violation of U.S. Fair Use doctrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use). Wizards should not follow the example of companies such as Viacom, owner of the Star Trek franchise (http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1997/10/7564) by cracking down on fan sites, squashing the artistic expression of people whose only desire is to pay tribute to the fiction (or games) that they love.

We believe that Wizards' Fan Tool Kit would not stand the legal test of fair use. We furthermore believe that, rather than providing "approved" artwork and threatening restrictions and legal action for the use of images, text and creations related to the Dungeons & Dragons "brand", Wizards should chart a general company policy towards open gaming (as exemplified by the creative explosion following the original OGL and d20 licenses in 2000) and the philosophy of Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/). To attempt to restrict fans to a small number of "approved" images, with countless "unapproved" images available freely everywhere on the Internet, is to swim upstream in the face of technology.

In the case of Dungeons & Dragons specifically, the D&D "brand" is in itself founded on public-domain names, imagery and ideas: from dragons, goblins, gnomes and other mythological creatures, to thinly disguised borrowings from the works of authors such as Jack Vance and J.R.R. Tolkien. In the process of forming their "brand" for Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards should not follow the example of the Walt Disney Corporation, claiming the absolute right over adaptations of works which were originally in the public domain or out-of-copyright (Cinderella, Snow White, Pinocchio, The Little Mermaid, etc.).

In this spirit, and with the greatest respect for Dungeons & Dragons and the millions of people around the world who have enjoyed the game, we ask that Wizards make an official retraction of the Fan Site Policy and take down the Fan Site Kit from the Wizards website (http://www.wizards.com/fankit/fantoolkitdnd.html) until a new policy can be drafted.

Theo Dudek
twitter.com/theodudek