Got this from Chris Gohlinghorst, head of US "Kommandos" and employee for GWUS. He requested an explanation from GW legal team and summarized what they said:
"Hey guys,
I was able to have a fantastic talk with a gentleman I am well
acquainted with in our Legal Dept in the UK. He was able to go into a
lot of detail with me and I'd like to share the highlights with you.
Please note that this is a bit of privileged information, and I'd
rather you keep it to yourselves until something is officially
released. It would put me into a compromised position if it just winds
up cut and pasted somewhere - but I'd like you to know what's going on
to avoid the dreaded foot-in-mouth disease that is far too prevalant
on internet forums.
>From our conversation, it appears there are two main points we have to
work with:
1) The German legislation would in fact automatically give some rights
to the Warhammer 40,000 universe to Damnatus if it was released. I
would be surprised to find anyone arguing that this is a tolerable
situation for any company to find itself in. Large amounts of money
were spent by GW Legal for German lawyers to try and find away around
this on Damnatus' behalf, to no avail. This was all done despite there
never being any official permission or signatures for the Damnatus
team to go ahead with their plan (which is horribly unfortunate for
everyone involved).
2) The above situation would have directly interfered with an already
existing, exclusive license that was granted to a third party in
respect to Warhammer 40,000 IP being used in movies.
In conclusion it appears that GW's hands are tied in this respect. The
value of the company's IP far outweighs any fan film, no matter how
hot our passions might run to see something so very cool released. It
is a shame (and heartbreaking for many) that it took this long for
things to come to a head as it only serves to muddy the arguments that
I'm sure will run hot for weeks to come on this topic.
Chris "
It sounds like they aren't the baby-killers a lot of people are making them out to be.
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Got this from Chris Gohlinghorst, head of US "Kommandos" and employee for GWUS. He requested an explanation from GW legal team and summarized what they said: "Hey guys, I was able to have a fantastic talk with a gentleman I am well acquainted with in our Legal Dept in the UK. He was able to go into a lot of detail with me and I'd like to share the highlights with you. Please note that this is a bit of privileged information, and I'd rather you keep it to yourselves until something is officially released. It would put me into a compromised position if it just winds up cut and pasted somewhere - but I'd like you to know what's going on to avoid the dreaded foot-in-mouth disease that is far too prevalant on internet forums. >From our conversation, it appears there are two main points we have to work with: 1) The German legislation would in fact automatically give some rights to the Warhammer 40,000 universe to Damnatus if it was released. I would be surprised to find anyone arguing that this is a tolerable situation for any company to find itself in. Large amounts of money were spent by GW Legal for German lawyers to try and find away around this on Damnatus' behalf, to no avail. This was all done despite there never being any official permission or signatures for the Damnatus team to go ahead with their plan (which is horribly unfortunate for everyone involved). 2) The above situation would have directly interfered with an already existing, exclusive license that was granted to a third party in respect to Warhammer 40,000 IP being used in movies. In conclusion it appears that GW's hands are tied in this respect. The value of the company's IP far outweighs any fan film, no matter how hot our passions might run to see something so very cool released. It is a shame (and heartbreaking for many) that it took this long for things to come to a head as it only serves to muddy the arguments that I'm sure will run hot for weeks to come on this topic. Chris " It sounds like they aren't the baby-killers a lot of people are making them out to be.