If it is not protected then the whole process of creating OGL material will become much much more expensive because the only way that you will be able to protect your IP will be to apply for a trademark (or similar)
Or keep your valuable IP out of OGC.
i.e. you will have to rely on existing laws rather then being able to use the simple PI rules as defined in the OGL.
This will be a great shame.
Why? existing IP laws have been sufficient for books for the last century or so, and for RPGs for the last quarter of a century--why do we suddenly need greater protections? What's wrong with needing to get a trademark if you really want to protect it? It's not like it costs any money, unless you want to register it. And it *should* be expensive to take words out of general circulation. Otherwise, there's no disincentive to doing so, and people will start walling off all sorts of content. Speaking as a fellow creator, if the most valuable thing i had was some invented words, i wouldn't worry about others copying them.
IMHO, the worst thing that could happen for IP, and society, is for the current trends to continue, locking up more and more content with broader and broader interpretations of copyright, trademark, and patent. Your interpretation of the PI clause is, IMHO, almost as silly as patents on algorithms, or banning knowledge of encryption systems, or extending copyright to protect Steamboat Willy (when Mickey Mouse would still be fully protected if Steamboat Willy entered the public domain). Almost anything that limits IP is, IMHO, a good thing. We need restrictions on reuse--we don't need so many.
Oh, and what's so simple about the PI rules in the WotC OGL? It took a long discussion on this list, plus a FAQ, just to figure out if the description of possible PI content was exhaustive or exemplary--and, since we haven't had a formal legal ruling on the matter, it's still not definitive. Add to this your interpretation, which makes PI perhaps the most complex subset of IP law out there. AFAIK, in no other area do you have to know everything about a field (including the parts you don't know), even a small field, just to avoid infringing, nor can you get in trouble for a later entrant in the field changing the rules out from under you.
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woodelf <*>
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