Games Workshop is laying down the hammer on Warhammer’s copyright.
Over 250 independent creators have been served with copyright lawsuits in a new and secretive slate of legal actions by Games Workshop, creators of popular table top games such as Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar.
Though the company is based in the U.K., the lawsuits were sent through the Florida Southern District Courts on April 16, with the proceedings being kept under seal until the defendants were served in order to keep them “unaware” according to court documents.
Tabletop wargames involve players assembling and painting an army of plastic figures, and then using specific rules and dice to compete against other players. Games Workshop is not the only producer of these games, but Warhammer 40,000 remains the most popular according to this 2024 poll.
Tabletop gaming has skyrocketed in recent years. That gain in popularity, in conjunction with inflation, has – inevitably – pushed the prices higher and higher. New players will have to spend between $150-250 just for a single starter kit of models, not including paints and other materials.
Making your hobby work for you
With the modernization and evolution of 3D printers, many gamers have found ways to avoid those higher costs by printing their own pieces at home. Sites like Amazon have printers sufficient to print gaming pieces for under $400, bringing the cost of each figure down to a fraction of what Games Workshop charges.
Many creators use sites like Etsy and Ebay to sell similar gaming pieces for tabletop games, while trying to remain legally distinct enough not to get in trouble. Some creators also make other 3D printed accessories of people’s favorite fandoms. Many of these shops make next to no profit according to one source, with some placing 3D printable files online for free.
In a sweeping move, Games Workshop brought down the hammer on over 250 of those creators for infringing on their copyright, with amounts sought reportedly as high as $2,500 per creator.
Strange cases
“The issue is, paying them $2,500 is cheaper than getting a lawyer for going to court, and they know it,” said BeetleDash, a Germany-based independent creator who paints custom Xbox controller covers.
BeetleDash’s shop is one of the 250 plus defendants named in the current wave of cases. They were named in the suit for a controller cover featuring iconography associated with 40k, but BeetleDash said they aren’t even a Warhammer creator. The controller was a custom request from a buyer that disappeared before purchasing the product, they said, so they put the controller online to try to recoup their lost time.
“Without this dude I wouldn’t have made the stuff,” they said, “I’m okay to pay for my errors, but through normal E.U. laws,”
A large portion of the creators named in the new lawsuits are European according to BeetleDash, and though Games Workshop themselves are too, for unknown reasons the company used the American court system to file this claim.
BeetleDash said they offered to settle with Games Workshop but were rejected.
“I told them I only sold one item for €150, and even sent proof,” they said. “Their lawyer responded and said my proposed amount to settle is too low, and claim I made €764 in sales.”
BeetleDash said Games Workshop’s lawyers accessed then froze their Etsy account, and because of that they should have access to the financials to see proof of income. The request was then lowered from $2500 to $1000.
BeetleDash was recently released from the lawsuit after agreeing to an undisclosed settlement amount.
“I agreed to pay to not lose my shop,” they said.
Games Workshop had the names of defendants sealed until the time when the summons were issued. As this is an ongoing case, more names continue to trickle out as creators are dismissed from the suit.
The full list of defendants was set to be released on April 30, but so far is still under seal by the courts.
Known defendants include creators Baron Of Dice, who was advised by legal counsel to not comment on the ongoing case.
Many creators have recently been dismissed from the case by Games Workshop, with more being added to that list daily. The settlement amounts agreed to by the distinct creators remain unknown.
Not the first strike
This is not the first time that Games Workshop has laid down the law when it comes to copyright of their products.
Eamann M. Ghasemy, known by the pseudonym EmanG, is a 3D model designer from Virginia, U.S.A. He faced a series of lawsuits by the company in 2023.
“I was facing bankruptcy when the case was open,” he said in a statement.
Since 2020, through marketplace websites like Cults3D, Ghasemy has sold and designed 3D models for players of a variety of games. Most of his designs were created to resemble the models for the Warhammer 40k range, and eventually he would take digital models from the video game Total War: Warhammer III and convert them into 3D printable files which he posted for free on Cults3D.
Once Games Workshop caught sight of that, Ghasemy was in trouble. The company sent 12 different cease-and-desist notices to Ghasemy in 2023, adding up to damages of $30,000.
The claim stated that EmanG was profiting off of his 1,000 Patreon subscribers using material owned by Games Workshop, saying while a version of the files were available online for free, the version with better supports for printing he put behind the paywall. The Patreon subscribers were used to determine the final amount of damages, but the Games Workshop files were not the only files available on EmanG’s Patreon, with most being original pieces created by the artist.
The costs of fighting in court left him facing bankruptcy, forcing him to turn to his fanbase for support.
“My finances are so deep in the negatives that I don’t really have any other options,” Ghasemy said to his Patreon supporters in a now deleted post linking to a fundraiser for his legal fees.
Games Workshop sought the full amount legally allowed for damages, and an end to Ghasemy’s online store. The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be re-litigated, in July of 2024.
“After the fundraiser and the agreement to settle, the case was dismissed by tribunal, I was very lucky,” he said.
The same year as the claim, Games Workshop reported a profit of $842.65 million.
Games Workshop did not respond to multiple requests for comment. .
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