The test for fair use varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and I donât know where jnet is hosted, but in general a court would look at whether jnet is a transformative use of the original work, what kind of thing the original work is, how much of the original work jnet is using, and how it affects the market of the original work. In the first 3 tests jnet definitely fails, as itâs exactly the same game, it doesnât attempt to create a variant of the game, Netrunner is a commercial product that you canât play without the cards it reproduces, and jnet uses all the cards and all the art. The 4th test is where fair use could be argued, as organised play is a big draw to the game, and Jnet doesnât allow you to participate in it. Itâs not like you can take your laptop to worlds and play on there. Moreover, FFG know that there are keen players who live in areas without other local players, and only get to play in person once a month when they can make a 2 hour drive to a tournament. Jnet allows those folks to practice for those tournaments, test out deck ideas, and maintain their interest in the game during the gaps between tournaments, which, can be argued, helps FFGâs business as it keeps those players who donât get to play in person much still buying cards.
But then people like the OP come along and they say ânah, this is enough for me, I donât need to play in person if I have thisâ, and that sort of thing gives an argument for the big corporate lawyers to say âsee? Itâs not fair use, as it clearly diminishes the potential market for the original!â
@qqq Iâm a big copyleft guy, Iâm a paid up member of the ORG and the EFF, and I believe copyright law has hugely overreached in recent decades. I believe that a lot of things currently classified in law as copyright infringement should be decriminalised, and studies have shown that, far from piracy killing the entertainment industry as the copyright mafia claim, consumers spend more on movies and music in countries in which file sharing is legal. I personally think itâs ok to use jnet without owning any of the cards, since thereâs always the potential of you turning into a paying customer at some point in the future, and it also keeps jnet populated with more warm bodies for the rest of us to play with. But crowing with pride about the fact that you havenât bought any of the cards, declaring that you see no reason why youâd ever buy the cards, and saying that those of us who own them are suckers, that kind of shit is crossing the line in a big way. Not just morally, because FFG need to sell bits of cardboard to keep developing the game we all love; not just because youâre coming across as an #$#!! by calling those of us supporting the game with our money idiots for shelling out cash when we could just play online for free; but most importantly of all, because youâre literally giving ammunition for anyone who might try to shut down Jnet in the future! Youâre literally screwing things up for all of us (including yourself) by making this argument!
I donât personally think ill of you for not buying in, but please shut up about it. Youâre fucking it up for everyone, and, honestly, its not as cool or cyberpunk as you think it is. FFG is barely bigger than a mom and pop operation, man of their employees play on Jnet, and its lead dev came 2nd at worlds once iirc. So youâre not exactly pulling one over an all-powerful megacorp here. If the REAL megacorp (Hasbro, whom FFG license the game from) decided to flex their muscles, Jnet would be shut down in a heartbeat.
(Also, you really should buy in, playing in person is a lot more fun, but thatâs a different topic.)
