Offical Homepage Requirements

This is the attachment I recieved.  Hopefully it will clear up a few a things


Official Homepage Requirements
Wizards of the Coast values its intellectual property a great deal, and it
also values its customers who make purchase decisions based on their love
of the IP. As sales dwindle on certain worlds that we create, we make the
decision to no longer produce printed materials for these worlds. As
Wizards of the Coast desires to keep previous customers happy with the
investment they have made with our products, we allow select websites to
take over the duties of providing new materials for retired intellectual
properties.

In order to be considered an official website, the site must:

a.)     Portray the intellectual property in a manner consistent with its
positioning. This information can be found in the Brand Positioning
documents. In lieu of these documents, work with the Brand Manager of D&D
Worlds on an approved look.
b.)     Retain the iconic heroes, locations, magical items, and artifacts.
Official sites are not allowed to kill off major PCs, destroy well-known
artifacts, and similar activities.
c.)     Official sites must have links back to the Wizards of the Coast website
that tie to:
1.)     Message Boards
2.)     Chat Rooms
3.)     Mailing Lists
4.)     Online Catalog
5.)     Online Store
6.)     Campaign Worlds
7.)     Dragon Magazine
8.)     Dungeon Adventures
9.)     Player Registry
10.)    Books
d.)     Official sites must not create their own community sections that
duplicate those services and features offered by the Wizards of the Coast
website.
e.)     Provide new content for fans within the guidelines in sections A and B.
While there is a great deal of latitude granted in this regard, official
websites should remain in close contact with the Brand Manager of D&D
Worlds (oracle@???????.com).
f.)     Keep Wizards of the Coast related materials separate from other
non-game sections of the website. This means we don't want to see other
business ventures mixed in with our intellectual property, such as
pornographic offerings, get-rich-quick schemes, etc.
g.)     Conduct its activities in a professional and businesslike manner. This
means that all actions on the part of visitors to the website should
conform to generally accepted business standards. Sites should never sell
visitor information records to other firms for the purpose of marketing,
for instance.
h.)     Refer players to the Other Worlds section of the Wizards of the Coast
page instead of their own URL. While many fans will bookmark your own page
anyway, it's important that fans receive the other information presented at
the Other Worlds section.
i.)     Make the material available for free. You're not allowed to charge for
access to official products.

We encourage fan sites to begin making updates to their content to bring it
in-line with 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons as soon as possible. We will
begin phasing out web pages that do not offer 3rd Edition Dungeons &
Dragons content soon after the launch of the new game system in August 2000.

In exchange for providing all of the official new material for an
intellectual property, Wizards of the Coast agrees to:

a.)     Provide prizes and other support materials at a level established by
the D&D Worlds Brand Manager.
b.)     Establish a direct link from the Wizards of the Coast web page to the
official fan site.
c.)     Have only a single source for all official content, that being your
site. Other sites that wish to be listed as part of the IP will be directed
to the official website.

This agreement will change as business necessities force us to alter the
manner in which we do business. Should the intellectual property currently
being supported by the official website be brought back into print, the
official status of the web site will be removed and Wizards of the Coast
will begin creating new content to support the relaunch of the game (or
work with the current official site to migrate content over).

Content created on the official website is considered to be derivative work
(as it is based on the intellectual property owned by Wizards of the
Coast). This means that fan-created add-ons (such as new net books,
adventures, etc.) are jointly owned by both Wizards of the Coast and the
creator; neither can do anything outside the official website without the
permission of the other.

Good Gaming!

Jim Butler, Brand Manager
D&D Worlds
Wizards of the Coast, Inc.


Cheers, David