I told him in my last text to him he isn't allowed to use my characters I made, is that enough?
Hello, sorry if this is in the wrong spot. I recently cut ties with a friend and fear he may use my Dungeons and Dragons characters in his paid for, for profit game.
I understand Dungeons and Dragons is owned by Wizards of the Coast, but the characters themselves, of my own creation, would be my legal property. Or am I wrong?
If the characters are creative enough and are original to you, you would own the copyrights in those characters and you would have the right to control who uses them and how they are used (with some exceptions). A copyright owner has the
exclusive right to reproduce their work, display (or perform) their work, distribute their work and create derivatives of their work.
Copyrights are automatic once a creative and original work is fixed in tangible form. Registration is not necessary unless or until you wish to sue for copyright infringement. Registration is inexpensive ($35/work) and the copyright holder becomes eligible to collect statutory damages ($750 to $30,000/infringed work) if the work is registered prior to or within 3 months of infringement. If registered later, the copyright holder is limited to collecting profits of the infringer and/or provable losses due to the infringement.
https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html
Telling your friend that he cannot use your copyright-protected characters
should be enough to prevent him from using them.
Do both you and your friend have licenses from Wizards of the Coast (a subsidiary of Hasbro) that are necessary to create your own games using the Dungeon and Dragons rules and mechanics? New licenses are available through Creative Commons.
