Building maps for existing (published) settings

[Eilathen]

I'm no lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt (it's mostly my opinion) :

Why should it be a problem if you post a work you did youself? Even if it is of a world not of your making. As long as you do not claim it is your original work and do not sell it, there is no problem. I'm pretty sure that in switzerland (where i live) no one could take action against you.
If you start to sell it or use it in published magazines or similar venues, that's a very different thing.

As a customer, i would vote with my wallet if i found out that a publisher (WotC etc etc) goes after fans who put up their fan-work for free. They make all their money from us fans...and then they try to screw us over?! Yeah, no thanks...i will never buy from you again.

[Mark Oliva]

I'm no lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt (it's mostly my opinion) :

Why should it be a problem if you post a work you did youself?

I'm not a lawyer either, but the stuff that we publish certainly is reviewed by one, and we certainly have discussed the issues involved here extensively with our lawyer. There is a lot of law and case law involving derivative works, in other words, works derived from the intellectual property of someone else. Switzerland also subscribes to the international copyright conventions that cover such matters. What Djaii is proposing is a derivative work.

As a customer, i would vote with my wallet if i found out that a publisher (WotC etc etc) goes after fans who put up their fan-work for free. They make all their money from us fans...and then they try to screw us over?! Yeah, no thanks...i will never buy from you again.

No one has suggested to date that WotC has gone after anyone for doing such things, however, I think even a Swiss lawyer will tell you that they could do so. Above and beyond all of that is the question of whether one perhaps - plain and simply - should post only legally proper artwork here, regardless whether the IP owner is nice or not.