I tend to look at whether what I do is going to make an impact on the original designer/seller. For example, I have a back-burner project to 3D print some pieces for games at the local library. Which means that kids can have more fun playing those games, which the library already purchased or got as donations. I’m not cutting into the market for replacement parts because AFAIK there is no market for replacement parts.
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Very quick copyright rules (IANAL) but here is the summary:
- You cannot copy art or words - EVEN FOR PRIVATE USE
- You have very limited rights to modify a prior art - but they are REALLY limited
- Just because you are not selling - does not remove (1) above.
- Specifically for games: game mechanics cannot be copyrighted, but all art and text is, so again - NO COPYING
Now, you may choose to make your own copy and you will probably get away with it, because who would know right? However, it is still a breach of copyright.
And, as a follow-up, Trademarks, which are more often about selling.
- You cannot copy a trademark (like Catan)
- You cannot “pass off” - i.e. make it look official when it isn’t
- Supporting products for a specific trademark are grey, but mostly on the side of you can’t.
Some examples
You cannot make a wooden copy of Catan. You also can’t sell it (copyright)
You cannot make a wooden version of Catan with diferent graphics and sell it as a Catan board (trademark)
You cannot make a wooden box for Catan and sell it as a Catan organiser (trademark)
You could make a game just like Catan, but with different artwork, different wording for the rules and scrupulously make sure you have not copied anything. You will be legally safe, but everybody would think you are a cad. (also that’s not to say you couldn’t be legally challenged even if you won in the end).
Finally, just while I’m on the topic, ARTWORK
I’ve seen lots of pieces which use or copy someone elses art, design, logo or photograph.
Be clear, these are straightforward breaches of copyright.
Just because someone has got away with it does not make it legal or right.
Hope that helps…
- Simon
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Always remember Board Game Geeks. Amazing resource. Quite a few 3D printed games last time I checked. I didn’t look for laser cut games, but bet they have some.
Also a great place for making your own games, finding feedback, and refining rules.
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That’s not exactly true. There are substantial rights under the Fair Use Doctrine, especially for one-off private use. As stated, this is overly broad. It’s worth reviewing the rules if you’re making anything for sale or in quantity but by & large you’re not violating the law to laser cut a Hello Kitty for example for your daughter 
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As I understand it copying for private use only qualifies as “Fair Use” when it is for study purposes.
I think copying a game, photograph, design would not be fair use, but you are still unlikely to (a) get caught and (b) get pursued legally, it is a bit of a moot point.
In general copyright and associated protections do not have anything to do with whether it is for sale, not for profit or personal use.
Again, I am not a lawyer, but have spent a lot of time looking at these issues as I am a photographer, author and game designer 
Also, copyright law varies by jurisdiction, as does trademark law, so people not in the US will face a different landscape (e.g. no fair use, but a right to make a backup).
The statute, which says
the fair use of a copyrighted work,
including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any
other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism,
comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for
classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of
copyright.
is not really helpful.
The Internet is awash in a lot of things particularly incorrect statements about Fair Use in regards to US intellectual property law. It mainly refers to criticism and news reporting. It’s what allows you to leave a review of something online without fear of being sued because the producer of what you reviewed didn’t like your write-up. When I was in college its use for teaching was severely restricted by a court decision. One semester you had to go to Kinkos for every class and buy the photocopied “book” of class materials (after the book store robbed you for the main text.) The next semester not so much.
As regards the Settlers of Catan board, Dan said in a post, or maybe it was one of the Q&A videos, they received permission for their board and will presumably have some sort of licensing deal if or when they put it in the store.
Case law and the actions of actors in different sectors have led to differing precedents and practices in different sectors. In science fiction/fantasy not-for-profit fan fiction is generally allowed as is cosplay. The relevance of whether or not you make money from it is different from the pure legal view versus what is allowed in that area of society. Try it with a Disney property (not including a Lucas Film one) and you’re likely to receive a cease and desist letter. The reason is because if an intellectual property right holder does not enforce his or her property it will eventually cross an invisible line and be considered public domain. That enforcement is expensive. The cost is why so many individuals and companies don’t enforce their rights and that non-enforcement helps to feed the misunderstandings of an already complicated subject.
Or you can go with my father’s summary of the law: what’s legal is what my lawyer makes legal.
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Not exactly. That’s just about the only clear text definitive statement in Section 107. Fair Use Doctrine is really defined through its acceptance by courts in specific cases. There are 4 attributes of the use that are weighed together to provide a basis for deciding if the public interest is maintained by allowing the copying or if the creator’s interest (& the public’s interest in encouraging similar creativity) is best served.
So it’s not as easy as checking a box on a standard or attribute and knowing if it’s fair use. People like definitive answers though so generally stop at the preamble to Section 107. And since the people who teach this are interested primarily in their rights, they lazily stop there as well since that’s where their benefits lie.
However, it’s a balancing act between all 4 characteristics of the claimed use that determine whether it’s infringing or Fair Use. The key ones are commercial intent (E.g. are you copying something for sale) and if that use would harm the creator’s use (e.g. your selling copies takes away sales from him). The others are somewhat derivative.
So, you could copy the rulebook of your favorite game if you wanted to preserve the original from your kid’s grubby popcorn butter stained fingers. You could not photocopy the rulebook and sell it with a knockoff game.
Just like Morgan could make a Spock lunch bag for her hubby but not sell them. The former is non-commercial use that does not deprive the creator’s potential to profit because there isn’t a similar bag available that she would have bought. The latter case is likely (although not definitively per se) infringing because it is a commercial use and were she successful she’d be proving a viable market the creator might then want to exploit.
Unfortunately the only way to be certain is for a court to make the determination. This is good because it doesn’t constrain Fair Use to a cookie-cutter approach that cannot account for all needs in the public’s interest. It’s bad because it just provides cannon fodder for lawyers.
Because of that it’s often simpler to parrot the section’s preamble as if that were definitive and walk away.
So, burning a Hello Kitty into your daughter’s lunchbox almost certainly won’t be a problem but if you want certainty then you just need to use nothing you haven’t designed yourself and taken no inspiration from other products (like life size versions of specific cars & trucks).
By the way even factors like commercial production or sale do not automatically disqualify for a valid Fair Use exemption. For instance I can copy a repair manual for a machine that is no longer in production and the manual no longer in print and sell it. The lack of an ongoing alternative marketplace and the creator’s essential abandonment would find in favor of my providing a method for someone to ensure the continued enjoyment of a validly purchased product which supports the public interest.
Caveat: I’m not an IP lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. However, I’ve been involved in the field for 30 years and have been involved in a number of court cases for both copyright and patent infringement including as an expert witness. Until the Alice decision software was a cesspool of garbage IP claims. It’s far better now so I’ve gotten many life minutes back
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And also remember that it doesn’t really matter to most ordinary mortals where the boundaries of fair use are. It matters to them whether someone who claims to own the rights to something will decide to take the matter to court. (A friend just this year finished with 10 years of a trademark dispute, and if not for the Streisand Effect getting him extra funding and pro bono help he wouldn’t have gotten past year 1.)
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Ultimately that’s the bottom line. All the laws in the world don’t matter because almost anyone can bring suit against almost anyone else for almost anything real or imagined. The only thing that stops it is time & money. The laws stop the generally law abiding and reasonable people from doing bad things but doesn’t protect anyone from the nefarious and bad intentioned until you get to court.
So is a chessboard copyrighted? Then I think my kitchen floor is going to jail ( along with my cutting board)…
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Not in the U.S. - the format of a chess board precedes 1923 when everything published to that point is non-copyrightable and thus in the public domain.
If it weren’t common use already, it wouldn’t likely be a copyright issue anyway but one where someone might look to patent law (for a “design patent”) or trademark (like the Monopoly Board). A chess game instruction book would be a copyright candidate but not the board itself.
Even cheating… Darth always loses
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I don’t know why everyone has it in for DV, his story is one of redemption, love and, ultimately, sacrifice. He may have participated in some of the worst disturbances the force has ever had but hey, everyone makes a mistake or two in their lives.
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Seriously, he’s inappropriately maligned. A legally elected government of the people and their elected leader face an attempt to dissolve a federation of worlds by force and he is called to help preserve that federation, put down the uprising and restore the federation of planets.
His techniques have a corollary in the precedent of previous generals like Sherman or Patton or MacArthur. In fact the “heroics” of the rebellion sound an awful lot like Jefferson Davis and the Confederate States.
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I wonder if I have time for another PhD, “Star Wars as an allegorical study of the American Civil War”?
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So do I. I’d really like to be able to sell this/copyright the game itself b/c it’s really fun for “the whole family.” Yes, even my brother who doesn’t usually like playing board games thinks this game is fun, and the added aspect of the “collectable” pieces being built into the game as real objects to collect and not just static cardboard things… etc. makes it even more fun (and that is an idea my friend and I came up with somewhat based on Monopoly… but making all the pieces different shapes and colors made it really fun to collect them… whereas with monopoly you just collect static cards and houses which are all made of plastic and all the same… BORING!) Also our game is REALLY EASY to PLAY and it’s kinda like a FUN and MAKES NOBODY CRY VERSION of Monopoly meets Sorry. I hope you will get to play it, Rebecca, in all it’s Laser-Made/3D Printed Glory (Yes, I plan on having Actual 3D Printed Wooden… I HAZ 3D Printer… included as well… pieces if/when I sell this on Etsy if I cannot get $$$ for it by selling it through the Catalog.) … “I need $$$ now b/c I bought a Glowforge…” and I don’t know if I will get it until… X-Mas Present for Myself!!! Sometimes you just gotta go for it… and I did. Wish It had come this past month and been more of a Self B-Day Present, but better late than never…
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Did you think of perhaps investing in a FlashForge Printer?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rUlI7RjmbY (This is me talking… BTW)
There are also lots of nice free programs for making 3D Scans of actual objects as well as for modeling things “from scratch” or messing with some FREE CAD.
I am still working on messing with Printing different materials… Wood, Metal, and all kinds of new things… cannot PRINT in stone, but who knows… someday???
Anyway… I actually own 2 Printers… one prints basically any materials… the Flashforge one, and I have another that was much more pricey… only prints in plastic(Resin) which I am still working on a way to PRINT in COLORS… so far I have not figured out a good method for that… however… I discovered one thing… don’t try to use acrylic paint. I am going to try to use a tiny amount of liquid pigment (Copic Marker Refill Ink specifically.) The “Resin Printer” I use is the “Form 1+” … which is the less expensive, but smaller print area model V. of the High Detail Resin Printer by the company Formlabs, and they are really great when it comes to tech support so if after you’ve drained your bank account buying a Glowforge and still have $$$ left… they are a really great company. I would buy from them. 
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Awesome! I only play cooperative games with my partner…he’s competitive and I get sensitive. Seems like a great game for us!
Please let us know if you sell it on Etsy.
I hope it all works out!!
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I might be a little late to the thread here and and I haven’t quite been following the progress but I really cant wait to do some board game prototyping with the glowforge! It is one of the things I’m looking forward to doing the most.
I ended up doing some fun prototyping with my 3D printer when I first got it! Didn’t end up making a game out of it but I loved making the pieces.
https://www.facebook.com/sentientrobotcrafts/photos/a.872426999533795.1073741827.872405479535947/872439189532576/?type=3&theater
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