Looks like their may be another legal battle on the horizon for Games Workshop, and from the looks of it, it may not be their fault?
Now please read all of this for yourself because my German is a little rusty here.
From what I can tell, the issue is that Ronald Vrkic the CEO of a Gamestrust.de (a site in Germany) feels that he can take full scans from GW’s books and White Dwarfs, watermark them, and post them on his site to entice folks to visit. Now also keep in mind this same CEO also takes pictures from other sites such as this one, watermarks them and posts them as his own as well.
Example: Our world exclusive Horus Heresy Pictures. Several hours later the same pictures appeared on their site, watermarked by Games Trust.
He has also let it slip in an interview below that: “In the not too distant future he wants to make an annual turnover of seven million euros”.
Plus to top it all off it seems like the German government is subsidizing his business to boot, but he’s taking issues the amount he’s getting paid now by them as well.
Again, my German is rusty, but please read ALL of this for yourselves.
Now Games Workshop recently sent him a C&D letter for posting straight scans of their IP and his reply seems to have been a very excited “no”.
Personally I’m not sure that’s the best course of action to take when you’re clearly re-posting their IP just like an illegal download site offering full codex PDFs and stealing other site’s exclusive pictures, but that’s just my 2 imperial credits there.
GW Conflict:
http://www.40kings.de/…/gw-vs-gamestrust-deutsche-webseite…/
Making 7 million Euros a year? http://www.pz-news.de/wirtschaft_artikel,-Jungunternehmer-h…
Now I’ll let the cat out of the bag on the millionaire thing, because it seems like sometimes folks think running a site makes you a ton of cash off ads.
While Spikey Bits definitely gets more web traffic and YouTube views that the stats he quotes in the article above, we have never (and don’t ever plan to) make a million dollars off this site. It’s literally not possible just covering hobby stuff – the market is just too niche. Now sure posting up video game press releases would help traffic some, but at the end of the day you need ORIGNIAL CONTENT to keep folks coming back again and again.
So in conclusion it looks like Ronald Vrkic is in conflict with Games Workshop and the German Government by his own direct actions, all the while toting he’s going to make millions off his website.
Either way I hope this thing gets resolved quickly cause the hobby really doesn’t need another black eye, but I feel like Games Workshop has EVERY right to take action against this guy after digging deeper on the matter.
UPDATE: While I won’t divulge his email address or IP, but we have an update from Ronald Vrkic (See comments below)
One of the world worst articel itself…
So the letter from GW was on 02nd of December…
and so far nothing to hear from GW legal
seems like Germany is really the country to take photos of the WD…
Only 18 minutes after this article was posted, we’ve heard back from the CEO himself! From the tone of this comment it looks like Vrkic believes you can just take whatever you want if you live in Germany. Also it appears he has not heard back from GW legal yet, not surprising seeing how they are probably all on holiday currently.
How do you see this one going?
About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls.
Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.
Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
