Dark Pack - FAQ

1. What is Dark Pack?

It's a general guideline with do's and don'ts for fansites or fans who wish to create sites, projects, or ideas with White Wolf material. Whether you want to be part of the group or not, these are guidelines to help you stay in the okay zone.

2. What if I don't want my site listed in the Dark Pack Community?

If for some reason, you do not want your site listed with the other fansites, you still must adhere to copyright and trademark regulations, agreements, and laws as well as to include this code on the appropriate pages instead of the Dark Pack Code:

<a href="http://www.white-wolf.com/legalize.html" target="_blank">Copyright White Wolf Publishing, Inc.</a>

You will also have to include the copyright text as well for the project and you cannot publish it for sale, distribution, or ownership.

3. What if I don't want to participate in the Dark Pack at all?

The material White Wolf creates is covered by copyright and trademark. Dark Pack is our framework for fan sites & communities. If you choose not to participate, you cannot use our copyrights or trademarks.

4. Can I make money off of my site or project?

No. Fansites and fan projects should be free and nonprofit and nonrevenue producing.

5. What is considered nonprofit, nonrevenue?

You should not be getting or making any money off of any White Wolf fan project, site, or projects with White Wolf's stuff on it. No money at all. No donations, no sale of site for advertisement, and no sale of your stuff based on our stuff.

6. Do I need to get my site/project approved?

There is no one to approve or police your site or project other than you and other fans. We believe that we can trust fans to support our material without infringing upon our rights. You can however add your fansite to our list and it might get checked in order to make sure it's a real site with White Wolf stuff and not some kind of scam.

7. How do I make sure my site is legally approved or okay?

Please just follow the rules, and anything you are unsure about legally, please seek legal counsel because we cannot give you legal advice. This site is primarily a general guideline to give fans an idea of what is and what is not appropriate. It's not meant to offer legal parameters. If you are unsure to what is okay and what is not okay for fan projects or the site, carefully read the site first.

8. Do I need to ask permission from a translator if one exists in my country?

Yes. If there is an official translator for White Wolf products in the country, please be respectful and comply with their wishes. They are partners with White Wolf and their translated works are our works too. The same rules apply and you should be respectful of their works.

9. Is there a code I have to include on my site?

Yes.

<a href="http://www.white-wolf.com/fansites" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.white-wolf.com/darkspiral/darkspiral.gif" alt="Copyright White Wolf Publishing, Inc." border="0"></a><br><a href="http://www.white-wolf.com/legalize.html" target="_blank">Copyright White Wolf Publishing, Inc.</a>

This code must be on the first page of the website or any section that White Wolf copyrighted and trademarked materials are to appear.

10. What is the copyright text I must use?

© 2008 CCP hf. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the
purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf and XX are registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights reserved. XX, XX, XX and XX are trademarks of CCP hf.
All rights reserved. Characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by CCP hf.

We understand that many of our fans use different White Wolf intellectual properties and we want you to know you still have to acknowledge and credit all the stuff you use. Please insert the book/line and/or the intellectual property that you are using for your fansite or fan project where the "XX" are.

11. Can I charge people to download White Wolf books from my site?

No. You are making money off of our products and you would be infringing upon our rights as the trademark and copyright owners by offering it for download and sale. We already have a partner that we use to sell our books electronically. Even if it is old material, we still sell it through our partner, so you are infringing upon our business as well as theirs. If you want to help, please give a link to White Wolf and Drive Thru RPG.

12. Can I offer downloads of the books or other products? Even if they're old World of Darkness or no longer in print?

No. We still offer our Old World of Darkness for sale. If you allow it for free download, you are giving away our stuff. If you charge for it, you are making money off of our books, and that's not OK.

13. Do I have to have a link to the White Wolf site?

Yes, you must have the link to our homepage displayed prominently on your homepage.

http://www.white-wolf.com

14. What are the limitations on how much art or text I can use?

You cannot use more than 1500 words. You can use no more than 3 art pieces taken from any single book. You may not quote more than 10,000 words from any White Wolf Product. You cannot have character generation rules listed on your site or complete power listings (even if they are your own modifications). You can, however, list any changes to the rules.

15. Can I post any of the downloads from the White Wolf site on my site?

No, you may not post downloads from our official site on your site.

16. Can I post old World of Darkness books for download on my site?

No. We still offer many of our books for sale on Drive Thru RPG, so if you offer our intellectual properties for free download or for sale, you are infringing on our rights.

17. Can I allow people to download entire books on my site?

No. Copies of the books are for personal use ONLY and you cannot post it to distribute, sale, or download for other people.

18. If I buy a PDF form of a book and want to post the PDF on my site for download, can I do that?

No. The PDF is for your personal use and not for you to distribute through both hard copy and electronic form for sale or for free.

19. Can I change art to post on my site?

You may not change the basic shape or proportions of these icons, but you can change color, texture, or size. Just be mindful that just because you change the color or size, it's still our art and not suddenly yours.

20. Can I use any of the art from the White Wolf site?

No. We've worked very hard to make our site unique. Please do not copy or use the same things on your site that's on ours.

21. Is there some way I can submit my work or art for someone at White Wolf to review?

If you wish to submit your work, please review the submissions guideline. There are specific guidelines and process for submitting a piece of work. However, if you wish to submit your work for someone to review and make sure it's okay, we do not have that process available.

We do not review or approve projects or works. Once again, this goes back to our inability to give you legal advice.

22. Do these guidelines apply to all fan content for the World of Darkness, regardless of where it is published or displayed?

Yes. You have to follow these rules if you wish to use any of our trademarked and/or copyrighted material for your site or your project.

23. I have a great new idea using the World of Darkness (or another White Wolf idea) that will interest many fans. Do I have to follow the rules and will you publish it?

We do appreciate your enthusiasm and creative energy, but let's take this one thing at a time.

First, if you'd like to license an intellectual property in order to create a physical product using the IP then that's a different arena altogether. That involves business proposals, so you would have to submit your business proposal in order to license something. Take a look at our other FAQ concerning that.

Secondly, if you'd like to just write something to share with other fans, follow the rules.

If you would like to seriously publish your work, then you must follow the submission guidelines, and that's a separate matter from these guidelines. Now, if you'd like to publish with someone else, please make sure that you are following copyright and/or trademark laws.

24. Can I license your Storyteller System? Can I use your Storyteller System to create a different or new game?

No and No. We do not license out our system and if you'd like to use our system to create another game altogether, no. If you would like to use the World of Darkness to create a supplement or content, that's covered in the Dark Pack, but if you would like to use our system to create a new game, we don't allow that. Our system is unique to our world and to us. We don't license it out and we don't give it out.

25. It says that you reserve the right to change things in the Dark Pack and reserve the right to exercise discretion concerning sites. Does this mean that you reserve the right to change my fan site or project whenever you so please?

No. We reserve the right to change the general guidelines of Dark Pack at any particular time without prior notice. As always, these are general guidelines, so we are not able to account for every possible scenario. There may be a better guideline or rule or maybe something has come to our attention that was not addressed in the Dark Pack originally and we have the right to add that to the Dark Pack or take something out. It may or may not affect your site depending on what it is, but we wouldn’t actively go and change your site. We do ask that you keep up with the Dark Pack and make changes accordingly.