Hi >> Come to think of it, I hope you're right in your interpretation - then >> everyone will have to come crawling to me just to add what they want to >> the >> list of PI terms. And I could demand monetary compensation. And if there >> >> are a lot of us like me out there, you'll be priced out of making material >> >> if you want any PI at all. See, it just doesn't work. Your >> interpretation >> is flawed if we carry it to its logical conclusion under contract law. :-(
Thank you for your very long and thorough thoughts on the subject, they seem very clear and you obviously have a clear idea about what you are talking about. I will take your advice and discuss this with my legal council. However (could you see that coming :-) Here are my thoughts as to why I am correct. Firstly I looked at the intent of the OGL. It does two things, it provides a framework that allows one publisher to re-use already created material without fear of recrimination. It also allows the same publisher to protect some of his creations and prevent others from using it (this is PI). The second part is vital because we all know that the real value of what we do lies in the IP that we create (i.e. the worlds, the characters etc.) and we need a way to prevent others from stealing them. You mention that there are two situations, one where Company B knows about Company A's material and wishes to re-use it and hence includes Company A in there section 15 of their version of the OGL (this is very clear and the PI is obviously covered). The other situation is where Company B does not know of the existence of Company A and is hence free to use any PI that Company A created because they are not aware of it. However there is a third situation. Company B knows of Company A's material and really likes the place names and character names that Company A has created but does not like any of the new rules. So Company B does not need to include A in their section 15 but they still go ahead and use all the PI that Company A invented. Now according to you that is perfectly valid as Company A and Company B do not have a contract between them! If anyone questioned them Company B could also fall back on the argument of 'I was not aware of Company A'. And according to you they are now doubly protected! So to me the question comes down to this concept of independent creation. In the above example I think that a Judge would ask Company B to PROVE that they could not possibly have copied the work from Company A. Firstly it would need to be established where Company A's material was available, if it was available via the Internet then Company B would need to prove that they (and all their employees) had never used the Internet (something that they will not be able to do). And if the material was available in games shops then they would have to prove that they had never visited any games shop ever (can you really remember every book you have ever picked up and flicked through? How do you know where you got all your ideas from?). (This has come up before but check out the music industry for examples of hard hard this is to prove and also the lengths that companies and individuals go to to protect themselves from this.) So if Company A is of a reasonable size and has actively published their material then I think Company B will be on very shaky ground. If Company A is however just one man and his dog in a bedsit someplace and has only ever created one product that he sent to his friends only, then Company B would have a fairly easy job is proving that they had never seen the material that they are accused of stealing. So my argument rests on what I believe to be the intent of the OGL. Namely that PI is protected. It needs to be, without that protection no publisher will ever use the OGL to publish anything that contains valuable IP. Cheers Mike Dymond Managing Director Myriador Ltd. a: Flat 1 The Old School House, 25 River Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire, SN9 5DH, UK m: 07900 042 293 t: 01672 564 254 f: 01672 564 254 - please phone first e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] w: www.myriador.com _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
