In an official post on The Lodestone, the community site for Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix recently announced an update to its “Materials Usage License,” which governs how fans can use FFXIV’s content.
The rules now grant permission for fans to create non-commercial physical goods under certain conditions, which was previously not allowed. Of note, the new guidelines also explicitly prohibit the creation of physical items using AI-generated derivative works or 3D printing.
Under the new terms of use, fan-made physical merch using copyrighted material of FFXIV must be made personally, with new restrictions including but not limited to necessitating a link (or QR code) of the new policy be made available on said goods (instead of a simple copyright text). Fan-made creations also must be made free of charge if given to others, as the guideline strictly forbids any sales or commercial use of its IP.
Notably, the commissions of physical items have an exception, namely for business cards and stickers. While the guideline prohibits the commissioning of companies or stores to create other printed products, these two are given a pass under certain conditions. Business cards require the player’s character, Home World (server) and/or social media tag to be present somewhere in the design. Stickers, on the other hand, may only be printed if the design is of an illustration or screenshot that includes the player’s own character.
The new policy also hammers the point that depictions that imitate preexisting official FFXIV merchandise are forbidden, giving examples such as “creating items by molding official merchandise or promotional items.”
The business-card exception may be of particular interest to FFXIV fans who exchange character or community cards at real-world events such as Fan Festival, although Square Enix has not stated that this was the reason for the exception.
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