Copyright: ours and yours

 

Terms of Involvement

By being involved in The Broad Cloth in any way, you are agreeing to these terms, so please do ask if you're not sure about them.    

The Broad Cloth story/world

The main structure of The Broad Cloth is set out in The Broad Cloth Almanac, the contents of which remain the copyright of Jenifer Toksvig. This set structure of the story/world and main community cannot be changed. There is a core narrative leading up to a coming-of-age celebration, which will always be the setting for an eventual live performance. Characters can be played online and/or at the live event. Players can perform their own character and/or, if possible, have someone else perform that character at the live event.    

Player's characters

When creating and playing characters, and sharing information about them anywhere, players must ensure they are not infringing anyone else's intellectual property. You cannot, for example, play a character from someone else's existing work of fiction in this setting. It's fine to be inspired by character traits of real life people you know, but please don't try to actually play a specific real person here either.   Player's original characters remain their copyright and can be extracted and played elsewhere. If details of a character's connection to this world are retained as part of the character, due credit must be given to The Broad Cloth and Jenifer Toksvig.   When referencing The Broad Cloth, no alterations or additions to the Almanac version of this world can be made, and this setting cannot be played elsewhere unless directly connected to this core project, and with permission. Where connections to another player's characters are included, that player's consent must be sought to make reference to their character outside of The Broad Cloth.   When playing a 'local' character whose basic structure has been set out as part of this project, players are welcome to make that character their own and extract it as per the guidelines above.   Since other people may also have a version of that same character, if extracted to another story world, it is advisable to change their name to something unique. Click here for an example of playing 'locals'.    

Interacting with other people's characters

Any knowledge your characters have about other players' characters can only come from those players. Your character can know things that:

• other characters have stated in play, if your character has heard or would know that information
• they would know if you have agreed with the other player/s that they would know them, for whatever reason

If players / their character/s offer any assumptions about other players' characters during play, the referenced character's player is then free to choose to accept that assumption as fact, or reject it.   Accepting it will incorporate that fact about their character into their copyright. They can also choose to reject that fact about their character, either through their character or out-of-character.    

Expanding your character/s

Some players like to expand their character/s' stories on other platforms or in other gaming worlds, and players are welcome to do this in a public forum as long as they make clear it is an extension of this story/world and this game, and as long as the parameters of this story/world and game are adhered to, and the appropriate permissions obtained from Jenifer Toksvig and any other players with connected characters.   Examples include:

• a journal entry written by a character
• a scene between two characters played out in eg: a Google doc
• a scene between several characters who are played and written by one player, some of whom might normally be NPC

   

Character pages

Players are welcome to have character information and other creative content included on this website, but must own the full copyright for all content shared here, unless that content is in the public domain. Due credit should always be given to all content creators. Your copyright in all of your original work remains with you.   There are websites of public domain images which can be used for character pictures, including Wikimedia Commons. AI generated images are also welcome.   Note that ideas are not copyrightable - there will be many characters who have things in common in this community: shepherds, weavers and so on. Once you've made enough creative choices to shape ideas into an identifiable character, that character is yours. If you are unsure, please ask for clarification.   Players are welcome to have character information and other creative content included on this website, but must own the full copyright for all content shared here, unless that content is in the public domain. Due credit should always be given to all content creators. Your copyright in all of your original work remains with you.    

Porting your character/s

You can, of course, take your character/s and play them in other games and other worlds. Where fictional relationships exist with other players' characters, their permission must be sought to port their characters too, or new substitute characters created. In other words, you can reference their work with permission, but you can't play their characters. Any connection to this world and its history can be referenced with due credit, or an alternate world and history can be substituted.   The process of The Copenhagen Interpretation cannot be used as a game structure without permission from Jenifer Toksvig, but the Access Accord is freely shared under the most open Creative Commons license, and can be used, shared, and edited by anyone. The process of Open Space Technology in its original form can be freely used by anyone, though giving due credit to Harrison Owen is always nice. The Copenhagen Interpretion of Open Space is also available for use by anyone. Platforms such as Discord, Zoom, World Anvil, etc can also be used by anyone in similar ways for free.    

Commercial use of content

You are, of course, free to use your intellectual property for commercial gain. You are not obliged to credit The Broad Cloth or Jenifer Toksvig, but if you would like to and have the opportunity to do so, here is some wording for that:   "This work (was inspired by / your own wording here) The Copenhagen Interpretation of THE BROAD CLOTH, a work of involved theatre created and held by Jenifer Toksvig."   If anything you use infringes on anyone else's intellectual property, their consent must be sought and a proper legal agreement must be made prior to that process, before any commercial work has begun. Writers are advised to join their local union (in the UK that's The Writers Guild of Great Britain) who can advise on such things, and to seek out proper legal representation wherever possible.   If you're not sure about anyone else's intellectual property, please ask them.