DISCLAIMER

Right this is the legal bit. I understand enough about the copyright laws of this country to know that this site walks something of a fine line. However, I'm hopeful that no-one who cares will ever find it as I've done my best to make sure the site isn't indexed on any search engine. If it is, then hopefully the text below will convince everyone that I'm really not worth suing.

Firstly, this is a strictly non-profit site. I pay Demon Internet Ltd. £24.99 for high speed web access and I get 20 MB of ad-free webspace back as part of the deal. That's the only money that's changing hands here. Nothing posted to the web is designed to make me any money in any way at all. This is a hobby. I do it for free because it's fun and it's something I can easily fit inbetween changing nappies and winding my son. Really, I'm a fast typer. Now, onto the specifics:

Dungeons and Dragons

Dungeons Dragons, D&D as well as the names of various gods, magic spells, items and all the connected paraphenalia are owned by Wizards of the Coast. I am in no way trying to pretend that I invented any of this and I think it's pretty clear from the text on this site where the intellectual property rights lie. Wizards is already very free with much of their D&D archive as can be evidenced by the wonderful Open Gaming Licence. Follow this external link to view the OGL (this opens in a new window).

By including information on character generation and experience point rules I am breaking the letter of the OGL. I have to raise my hand and admit to that. In my defence I will say that I'm doing nothing that dozens of other sites aren't doing, and I do not believe someone could take this site and run D&D without recourse to published material. You still need the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual to run D&D. You can't do it from this site. That's quite deliberate on my part.

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Yes, I'll admit it. I nicked their logo for the Evidence Response pages. Damn my life of international crime. May I say that anyone who mistakes the campaign notes of Marc's game as the official FBI site should really consider removing themselves from the gene pool for the sake of the rest of us. In the event that the FBI catches all the other criminals in the world and realises my heinous act I'll be happy to remove the image. In the meantime, it stays.

Frederick Sandys

Quoting a section from Betty Elezea's book is well within the UK's copyright laws. Reproducing Sandys's portrait of Mrs Bedingfeld is also fine on a non-profit site such as this one. However, should the estate of Mrs Bedingfeld or the Norwich Castle Museum ask me to remove the image I will. All joking aside the picture is on the site because I really like it. If anyone is ever in Norwich pop into the museum and see if you can find it. And if not, there's plenty more to see there. Follow this external link to their offical site (opens in a new window).

Willy Fog

Well, his picture is in the Special Features section. Willy Fog, the animated version of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg, is owned by BRB International (South Africa). In the UK episodes are released on DVD by Revelation Films Ltd. I personally captured the image used on this site from a DVD that I purchased with my hard earned cash. There are plenty of other websites out there with significantly more more pictures of Mr Fog. And if anyone hasn't seen this cartoon (first broadcast in the UK in 1987) then get to the shops now. It's very good.

Everything Else

I would like to say that everything else on this site is owned by me, and therefore my copyright, but sadly that isn't true. Running a roleplaying campaign is a collective effort. Yes I invented the world setting and all the gods and most of the NPCs, but I didn't invent the PCs. I didn't write Raza de Luna's character background, I didn't come up with half the adventures until the PCs went in a certain direction. The fact is that Iourn was created by my players as much as it was by me. I might be the majority share-holder but I don't have the monopoly on ideas.

As it is, it doesn't really matter. As I stated elsewhere Iourn was a means to an end. It was a generic campaign setting that I could throw everything Wizards produced into and get something out. Yes the copyright of the setting is owned by me and my players, but it's out in Internet-land and it would be a shame if it wasn't used. Anyone reading this who wants to take the Iourn setting and use bits of it in their own games is more than welcome. Goodness knows I have ruthlessly pillaged published material, websites and novels for the ideas for my plots and characters. If you want to take the setting as is and run your own campaign with it then be my guest. Be sure to drop me a line and tell me how you got on as I'll be interested to know.

My one stipulation is that nothing I have invented for this website can be taken from here and used to make you money. If you choose to repost any of the information on this site on another website then please credit me as the creator and post a link back to the original source. To a great extent the web works on trust, and by putting this body of work on-line I'm trusting that no-one is going to screw me over because of it.