This will get me flames 10 ways to sunday, but what the hell. BFRPG was published under an extremely open license. That means that, as long as the proper attribution is given, other people are allowed to do damn near anything with it...to include slapping a different title and cover on it and selling it. That's not "stealing" or "being a thief", that's using the license in the permitted manner. There are slightly less open licenses that BFRPG could have been published under that would have made this impossible, but those aren't the licenses that were chosed to publish BFRPG under.

Also... I think I am going to put "Schrodinger's Anger" in my back pocket.

@@jimjones7980 I was kind of proud of that one...

Well, thank YOU for the kind words!

That's the Alternate Cover version of the Core Rules. More details here: www.basicfantasy.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5206

Let me point out here that buying our books is definitely optional. We give it all away for free in digital format, and make almost nothing from the sales. For the Basic Fantasy Project, "contributing" is done not with money but with time and talent. But hey, if you want the books, let me not stand in your way, and thanks!

Thanks. It was a journey to get here.

Thanks! I honestly think "Bishop" Brooks needs some help, y'know? Because this just does not make sense. No way it can be effective as a way to make money.

@@ChrisGonnerman I personally have purchased almost all of BF products because the system is amazing, the community is awesome, the prices are beyond reasonable and lastly the future is bright with all that is offered. And i look forward to what is in store moving forward! thank you for being a great example in this industry, it is very appreciative and much needed in the scheme of things today. a breath of fresh air!

Kind words are always appreciated, but honestly since we sell almost at cost, sales aren't the main way people contribute. The best way to contribute to the Project is to join the forum and share your stuff!

Welcome!

Thanks!

Thanks man. Nice to hear from you!

Likewise! I hope the amazon situation gets sorted quickly!

@@TravisLegge Two days ago, on Wednesday the 10th. Took more than two weeks for the last one, and I don't know that it won't happen again.

@@ChrisGonnerman That's awful. You'd think once they got it cleared up that would be it!

@@TravisLegge As of right now I know that each format of each book has a separate "infringement claim" flag of some kind. I don't know if resolving the claim removes it, but you'd think that's how it should work. I have not updated the standard format 4thEd hardback yet, so it may still be flagged from before.

I'm not sure they knew prior to Friday. They certainly should know now.

@@ChrisGonnerman I still wonder what their stance on this is...Anyway, good luck and thanks for all the hard work.

@@ChrisGonnerman If the community can do anything to help, just let us know. We've all got your back

I sincerely doubt anyone was aware of this at DriveThruRPG. There are hundreds of thousands of titles available there, they cannot be expected to do an exhaustive comparison of each new file to everything else they have availible. And lets be honest, even if someone DID notice that it looked kinda familar....most of the OSR kinda looks familiar.

To be fair, before gothicchurch.org was taken down you could easily see that "Bishop" was a self-styled position. I use the honorific with more than a touch of irony.

@@ChrisGonnerman oh, then I would be even less cordial ! Good luck! Tbh... we did switch to ACKs for my current game, but we spent multiple years on basic fantasy and you guys are doing great stuff. Thanks so much for the hours of fun !

he's no bishop. you can't just call yourself a bishop and have it be real.

I am a Bishop, but it’s my last name 😂. No I am not this joker lol.

Hard to sue someone you can't find.

First I'd have to find Madison Brooks. It's harder than it looks. Also, apparently a Canadian citizen.

​@@ChrisGonnerman it can be done if your lawyer feels it's worth it, there are a lot of ways to track people down very fast

Well I did, but now I'm not finding it. Hmm. It wasn't that long ago that I bought the one in the video. ... AH, it's here: www.cafepress.com/shop/basicfantasy/products?designId=110108396

@@ChrisGonnerman Thanks. They don't have a large enough size for me. Might buy a pack of those stickers and toss one on my gaming bag or a pin for my vest, though!

@@disciple012 Thanks! I might have to try another vendor, if size is an issue.

@@ChrisGonnerman Would probably be hard to find one that does my size. I'm a big guy. I wear 6x.

@@disciple012 Ah, I see the problem. Sorry man.

Not a likely outcome, but I'll let you all know if we need it.

Yes, as of right now, all Gothic Games titles have been removed.

That's good to hear!!!

The fonts we are using now are free.

Sure, if you want. It's bigger than just BFRPG, after all.

Thanks!

@@ChrisGonnerman I found out about your situation from an Indestructaboy video. I just want to do my part to spread positivity and boost smaller creators

Yeah, they look pretty cool. Omer Golan-Joel and I have been friends on Facebook forever. I'd love to try it someday!

Actually DriveThruRPG seems to be taking action. Now if I could just get Amazon to move on my response to the last infringement claim.

Unless you know something I don't, I doubt this is the situation. Bishop Brooks selected only some items to copy; the number listed on DriveThruRPG is much the same as those previously appearing elsewhere in the first round of action. They show every indication of trying to use open projects (software as well as books) to project the image of being someone "important." Indeed, the construction of the Gothic Church from nothing more than dreams and shadows, and the crowning of themself as Bishop and even Pontiff (seriously, you should have seen gothicchurch.org when it was still there) is an indication of this.

​@ChrisGonnerman You're right Chris, I think he does have some sort of mental disorder, like narcissism coupled with a total lack of empathy. He does not feel wrong about it, he just follows the cold hard logic, like an AI. An AI does not feel remorse at copying the work of others, it's just what it does to fulfill the task given to it.

There is one author that said “You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion." That later made a church based on texts he plagiarized, The Church of Scientology maybe you have heard of it? In short don't ascribe ignorance and illness to what can just be good old fashioned malice and greed.

AI artwork isn't regulated, not really.

I could report them for infringement, but as I say in the video, technically they're legal now. Still wrong though. A violation of the social contract that the license only hints at.

Wait… has he shared his “changes” with the community?

@@DMTalesTTRPG the rule about licensing doesn't require giving away the digital form, only that those who receive it can do as they like with it so long as they follow the license.

@@ChrisGonnerman ah…rats.

Thanks! I honestly did not know.

Thanks. If I go that route, though, I'll need original proofers and contributors to provide the documents. Actual witnesses, in other words. We're not there yet though.

I believe this is different. First, the Bishop doesn't seem to be taking the easiest course; while we share ODT source documents, Brooks had to scrape text out of PDF files and reformat for basically all the other things they "borrowed." Steps taken to be legal were not exactly minimal effort either. Finally, they are only (as far as I can see) "pirating" half a dozen items for money, plus sharing about a dozen more for free to support "their" games. This is not what I'd expect from a grifter. I firmly believe that "Bishop" Madison Brooks has an issue where they badly want to be important, or at least recognized and respected in some way. They literally made themself a Bishop; it's a self-applied title as best as I could find out the first time around, and the evidence has been erased from the Internet so I can't point you at it anymore. Gothic Church claimed three church locations; one appeared to be a historic church, another an existing church belonging to another denomination, and the last a private residence in a First Nations reserve, all in Canada. Documents once visible on the gothicchurch.org site included declarations from the "Pontiff" (apparently also Brooks) creating social organizations modeled on the Knights of Columbus and their Auxiliary. There was a KZfaq channel, now gone, with several animated Bible story videos apparently cribbed from a Mormon channel and one video where a young man gave a tour of that historic church I mentioned. I'm now pretty sure he was not a part of the "Gothic Church" but rather was part of whatever group maintain that building. Finally, Brooks set up faux Facebook and faux Twitter/chatroom sites using Open Source software; they were wastelands, nearly empty of content, but there was some evidence that the Bishop did have a few friends who checked in now and again. All of that has been scrubbed. The chat site is the only place where I ever managed to make contact with Bishop Madison Brooks, and I was smart enough to make a log of the conversation for records purposes. They simply did not seem to understand (a) how they had violated the CC BY-SA license by removing my name, and (b) that even doing it legally would never work out in their favor.

@@ChrisGonnerman well, maybe you're right. Still, seems like an awful lot of work for very little benefit. As a person who has made some indie games, if you don't have any recognition, you aren't going to sell many copies. Especially at their prices, so maybe he really does just have a weird, skewed idea of how the whole thing (the rpg industry) works. It just seems inconceivable to me, lol. But just because I can't imagine it doesn't mean it's not true

@@jasonGamesMaster I feel like Brooks is trying to construct a new online "self" that is a respected authority, but does not know how to do it so they are collecting things to make themselves look bigger and better. ... that sounds... familiar...

@@ChrisGonnerman yeah. I see what you mean. Thanks for explaining your nuanced view. That really does make a lot of sense.... I mean, as much sense as this can, anyway

@@jasonGamesMaster Indeed. I'm hoping to somehow get in actual contact with Madison Brooks, but not holding out a lot of hope.

That's... that's not really the point...

That's not exactly how it works. No, this is more or less legal as Brooks has done it. It's just wrong, and foolish.