On Saturday, Jun 14, 2003, at 12:12 US/Eastern, Tim Dugger wrote:
On 14 Jun 2003 DarkTouch scribbled a note about Re: [Ogf-l] Dungeon Master in OGC:
You're making the mistake of looking at WotC in terms of a faceless monolith. Try breaking it down into individuals and it might make more sense to you.
Wrong! WOTC, as a company, released the SRD under the OGL, not as a group of individuals, each releasing various pieces of it.
As a company, it has to deal with the consequences of the actions of the employee who did this, and it was not actually a single employee who may or may not be at fault.
It has to deal with the consequences using rules at least as permissive as the rest of the world: there doesn't seem to be any legal standing whatsoever for denying them the benefits of the cure period. (In this strange case, it could be argued that only WotC can notify WotC of the infringement for purposes of starting the cure period countdown, but judges are very unlikely to hold to this interpretation, in my (non-lawyer) opinion).
Remember, WOTC has a process through which the sections of the SRD were reviewed (which included going past the legal department as well). Either "Dungeon Master" was meant to be released, or a whole bunch of people made the exact same mistake. The end result is the same, it has been released as OGC and now cannot be pulled back.
This may sound nice, but it makes little difference how many people could have noticed a mistake. You might try arguing in court that the review process implies that they didn't release it by mistake, but, as Ryan's pointed out, WotC has been very much on record that they don't intend to open this IP, so it's unlikely to be a convincing argument.
Any attempts to do so will provide lots of fuel for the conspiracy theorists, as well as cause major backlashes among the companies producing d20 material.
It would amount to saying that the OGL is not worth the paper it isn't printed on. That WOTC will do whatever pleases, no matter what licenses or such may be in effect. Would you want to do business with a company that would do whatever they pleased, no matter that it violates licenses and contracts and so forth? I know that I wouldn't.
It amounts to saying that there are niceties in the OGL that apply to WotC as well as everyone else, AND that WotC, like most `superpowers' in an uneven interaction, can use their power to behave badly. If this is news to you, then you probably shouldn't be publishing under the d20STL or using WotC's OGL'd materials (it's not like this is the first possible-but-unlikely scenario where WotC can screw over other publishers by behaving badly but within the OGL/d20STL). Shrug.
TANSTAAFL Rasyr (Tim Dugger) System Editor Iron Crown Enterprises E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Looking forward to seeing new RoleMaster stuff... You guys really need some computer aids, though... :-)
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