PlanetADnD staff and owners have been contacted many times by Ronald L. Rockney, Chick Publications Treasurer, about this being a copyright violation. Although if "Chick Publications" would care to read the United States of America's law on the "Fair Use Policy" they would soon find out that we can post this article if we so choose. However to avoid legal confrontations we have posted a link to "DARK DUNGEONS ©" instead of hosting it ourselves. We will also be handing out this tract for free at next year's GEN CON, curtiousy of PlanetADnD. Never surrendering protectors of Dungeons & Dragons.
"There is no copyright infringment under the "fair use policy" that
applies to parodies as defined by the Berne convention of which the US is
a member. "Dark Dungeons ©" may not apply, since it was copyrighted in paper form in 1984, 5 years before the Berne convention. Jack Chick makes use of D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, all of which are protected by their own represenatives. If Chick is really concerned about copyrights and trademarks, he needs to remove the track from his site as well. Because he is obviously in violation." WebWarlock
Why do we persist. Well freedom of speech is a wonderful thing and we truly believe that Jack Chick is a man of little intelligence and we want to show our fans and the world why.
We have received a lot of support over this and we would like to thank everyone for that. We have decided to post some of the emails from Chick Publications as well as emails that we have received from visitors.
My First Email to Gary.
Gary's opinion of The Dark Dungeons, as well as Chick Publications.
A mailing list message.
Next email to Gary.
Next from Gary.
Email from WOTC
Email from Jim Butler of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
This is the email I received after I contacted WOTC about Jack Chick going against there copyrights with the use of the "D&D" trademark in the tract.