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Iron Crown Enterprises has produced role playing, board, miniature, and collectible card games for over 20 years. Many of ICE's better-known products were related to JRR Tolkien's world of Middle-earth, but the Rolemaster rules system, and its science-fiction equivalent, Spacemaster, have been the foundation of ICE's business.
ICE was incorporated in 1980 after the principle founders graduated from the University of Virginia. ICE's primary focus, then and now, was on non-electronic, or "table top", role-playing games (RPG's) marketed to the RPG hobbyist market. ICE's Tolkien-based RPG, Middle-earth Roleplaying, is the second best selling fantasy RPG after Hasbro's Dungeons & Dragons. These products have been developed and refined over a twenty-year period, and have achieved commercial and critical success, selling over $30 million of game products. ICE products have been given several game-of-the-year awards domestically, including those from the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) in 1996. They also won several awards overseas.
Despite ICE's many successes, the company entered bankruptcy and made the decision to wind itself up under Chapter 7 in October of 2000. In 1997, ICE suffered financial difficulties due to the rapid decline in its distribution net where nearly 70% of ICE's distributors either went bankrupt or became moribund.
In December of 2001, ICE was purchased by Aurigas Aldebaron LLC, an intellectual property ownership company backed by several wealthy individuals. Aurigas immediately replaced the former ICE management with part of the management team from ICE and its own senior representative. In addition, some of the former employees were recruited, and ICE has since recruited new employees.
ICE's game plan is simple:
The Loooong version:
Iron Crown Enterprises, I.C.E., ICE, Rolemaster, High Adventure Role Playing, HARP, Spacemaster, Cyberspace, Shadow World and Bladelands—and all products related thereto—are all trademark and copyright 2002-2006 © properties of Aurigas Aldebaron LLC, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902 USA. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, the products listed on this website or bearing the ICE imprint are publications of Mjolnir LLC dba Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE), 112 Goodman Street, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902 USA under license from Aurigas Aldebaron LLC. They are copyright © properties of Aurigas Aldebaron LLC and all characters and places therein, are trademark properties of Aurigas Aldebaron LLC. All rights reserved. Silent Death: The Next Millennium is a trademark of Mythic Entertainment LLC.Short and sweet:
Copyright 2002-2006 by Aurigas Aldbaron LLC... All rights reserved. No reproductions without permission. Produced and distributed by Mjolnir LLC, dba Iron Crown Enterprises 112 Goodman Street, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902.Silent Death statement:
Silent Death: The Next Millennium is a trademark of Mythic Entertainment LLC.
All material accepted for publication on the Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) website becomes the property of ICE. Contributors are not compensated for their contributions. All contributions shall be sent with no expectations of compensation. (Except where otherwise, and expressly noted.)
By submitting articles and images to ICE, you are stating that you are the author of the work or have proper permissions to use the work. You are also stating that ICE will be held harmless of any and all actions resulting from copyright infringement which may arise from publishing work or images that you falsely take credit for.
The following material pertains to ICE’s intellectual property, and hopefully addresses any questions you might have regarding the ownership and use of this property. It is certainly a general expression of our thoughts regarding the creation of derivative works, regardless of their form or nature. Should you have any additional questions regarding our licensing policy, please address your inquiry to Bruce Neidlinger c/o srsbruce@aol.com. (Keep in mind that you may have to wait a while for a response.)
ICE’s Use and Development Philosophy
Generally, ICE encourages its customers and associates to use our intellectual property. We have an “open door” use and development policy. In this context, we encourage the creation of ICE-related “derivative works” (i.e., works based upon, and/or created using, ICE-owned intellectual property). We only ask that such derivative works comply with the following guidelines:
- ICE Credit Notification — You must incorporate a prominent copyright notice stating that the work is based upon ICE’s work, specifying and citing the ICE publication(s) in question: Copyright 2002 by Aurigas Aldbaron LLC... All rights reserved. No reproductions without permission. Produced and distributed by Mjolnir LLC, dba Iron Crown Enterprises 112 Goodman Street, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902. If you have any questions about this please email Bruce Neidlinger, CEO at bruce@ironcrown.com.
- Designer Credit Notification — You must incorporate a prominent notice stating that the work is derived from a work authored by one or more specific designers.
- ICE Permission Notice — You must acquire and then note permission from ICE.
- No Dilution — Your work cannot substantively dilute the value of ICE’s intellectual property. In other words, the derivative work cannot compete with an existing ICE work or a work ICE reasonably intends to publish. By competition, we mean that the derivative work and existing/potential ICE work may cover the same subject matter, and that the circulation of the derivative work may substantively reduce the sales of the ICE work.
- Quality Control — Your work cannot substantively deviate from the standards of quality associated with the product/line from which the product is derived. Most importantly, it cannot be pornographic, libelous, or in other ways criminal or tortious in nature.
- Fair Division of Revenue — In the case of commercial publications, the standards/scrutiny should be higher. Here, we also ask that any profits be fairly split, and a licensing fee or royalty may be in order.
ICE Trademarks
ICE’s publications are protected by copyright and trademark protection. Trademark protection applies to the identification of goods in commerce. A trademark infringement may arise when someone trades in commerce with a product that is in whole or part identified with an existing mark. For instance, if you sell a good on the basis of the fact that it contains “Rolemaster” material, you are using our trademark. If done without permission, this constitutes trademark infringement.
ICE Copyrights
Copyright protection applies to the original manifestation of an idea, generally text or artwork or music that expresses said idea. You cannot copyright the idea itself. Only a manifestation of an idea receives protection. (This is true even in the case of a patent, which affords protection to a novel method, formula, or process.)
A copyright infringement may arise when someone publishes text or artwork that is substantively a recreation of copyrighted material. For instance, if you sell a good that contains text or artwork that is derived from“Rolemaster” material, you may be subject to an action for copyright infringement.
Note that most of ICE’s works are commissioned as “works for hire” and by out-of-house authors. While ICE owns the copyright, both ICE and the authors are affected by copyright infringement. Such infringement reduces sales, which in turn reduces ICE revenue and the royalty flow to authors. Even if you don’t care about the infringement of a company’s copyrights, we ask that you be respectful of the authors’ needs.
Our Thoughts About “Derivative Works”
Derivative works create special problems. They may fall into the category of “fair use,” as in the case of satire or commentary (analysis); however, it is generally held that you cannot quote/recreate copyrighted material to an extent greater than that necessary to achieve the underlying (and fair) goal. Copying a book and putting it in a different script/font is hardly satirical. It is certainly not commentary. On the other hand, adding humorous text to a musical composition (ala Weird Al Jankovich) may constitute fair use.
The standards of evaluation are simple:
- Was the derivative work published pursuant to the fair use doctrine?
- Is the derivative work substantively original?
- Has the publication of the derivative work created harm to the original publisher, or will it likely create harm? By harm, I mean does it dilute the value of the original work or otherwise harm the value because of poor quality, its libelous nature, etc.
ICE will vigorously defend its intellectual property rights. We will also be fair. We will in every case endeavor to encourage the free and fair use of ideas, especially in the context of the policy guidelines expressed above. In short, we ask that people who are interested in trading with our ideas communicate with ICE and pay attention to our policy. Should you follow such a course, you can be confident of our well-measured cooperation.
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