<<My central assertion is that a meta-license that established a community standard for source labeling and citation,>>
I think this is not that necessary. It would be convenient to have boilerplate language for an agreement, but nothing more.
People who want to give you source citation rights do so readily with an email now. People who don't want to, would not use a source citation license.
<< and cleared up some murky areas in the OGL, would benefit the community as a
whole.>>
A cleaner OGL would be a nice thing. I've talked to a number of people who already publish or who were considering publishing who've been scared by the gray areas of the license and wish they were cleaner. These people, when publishing under the OGL are primarily motivated by the vast ocean of pre-existing OGC, not because the license was particularly clear in all of its clauses and made them feel safe.
<< I think that this is true of the Biggest Fish as well as the smaller ones, but all that is required of the meta-license is that it must be in the common good, legally defensible, and not sufficiently threatening to established interests for them to spend a lot on legal fees.
>>
I think the Big Fish aren't going to use a meta-license. People who want to very much stay out of court and out of pointless debates with other small publishers might very well benefit from a clarifying meta-license.
The Big Fish will arrange for a change of the OGL itself if the Small Fish convince the Medium Fish to convince the Big Fish of such needs or advantages.
<< As a d20 publisher alternating between delusions of grandeur and a pessimistic evaluation of the state of the marketplace, these are the issues that concern me, and I think a specific citation system is one solution.>
>
I think these issues are more of a concern to academics than non-academics. I personally feel sort of stupid not footnoting some things that are clearly the type of thing begging for in-line citations. However, some people specifically ask for it with the OGL, saying "please tell folks where you got this idea from".
I think the problem with citations, is that you want "good" publications to cite you, but you don't want to be within 30' of a citation in a really bad publication in some instances because you don't want your good name sullied by misuse of a citation allowance which might potentially border on actual advertising of compatibility if someone abused the privilege.
A meta-license would help there to avoid having to draft language, but so to would a handshake agreement with people known to produce good work.
Lee
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