Question on private commissions depicting copyright works

[ravells]

Please don't rely on what I'm about to say without getting proper legal advice, but fwiw, I think that (assuming a standard kitchen sink copyright notice with the product and standard western copyright laws):

-If you are reproducing maps for sale which can be identified as having come from that campaign world, then that it probably actionable.
-Whether the copyright holder chooses to take action in your case (a one-off) is another matter entirely. It's not as if what you are doing hurts their sales (in fact if anything it probably helps them unless they provide a bespoke map art service).

So my view is that it is probably an actionable breach of copyright (derivation/reproduction) but the copyright holder is very unlikely to enforce. You may wish to write to them but that could be a poisoned chalice, since the copyright holder might feel bound to say 'no' so it does not dilute it's overt position, when privately it would do nothing if you went ahead and made the map anyway without asking for permission (since it could then say that it didn't know about your map even if it did).

As I see it, even fan art (done for nothing) can be a breach of copyright. It's just that most (sensible) copyright holders like game companies see this as good advertising and don't want to alienate their fan base - so they don't enforce but just stay quiet about it rather than giving outright permission.

These are just my lay views, I'd be interested to see what others have to say!