Roll for Lawsuit: Are Actual-Play Series Copyright Infringers?
Mark Mehochko | 27 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 831 (2025)
Dungeons and Dragons is a highly popular Tabletop
Role-Playing Game designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1973. The game’s emphasis on narrative storytelling makes it an interesting subject for copyright analysis. When a group plays Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) for an audience, using copyrighted materials from Dungeons and Dragons’s publisher, Wizards of the Coast, there is an open question about whether the players infringe on Wizards of the Coast’s exclusive rights under § 106 of the Copyright Act of 1976. This issue is further complicated by Wizards of the Coast’s unique approach to licensing.
This Note examines how Dungeons and Dragons performances implicate Wizards of the Coast’s exclusive rights under the Copyright Act. After establishing that groups playing D&D publicly are likely liable for infringement of the reproduction, derivative work, and public performance rights of Wizards of the Coast, a statutory solution is proposed based on the Ninth Circuit’s holding inAllen v. Academic Games League of America, Inc.