On Monday, April 12, 2004 6:07 AM woodelf wrote:Have we ever actually definitively answered the question of what constitutes "a work" for purposes of the WotC OGL? While it of course makes more sense for it to be defined as you say, so that aggregate works like magazines don't have to abide by the license restrictions /in toto/, is there any evidence of this in the license itself? Or any evidence against it?
Well, I guess "work" is defined differently in different jurisdictions. A full proper definition would fill several pages of text, so let me give you a few examples of what IMO constitutes a work:
* A role-playing game book * A role-playing game rule description * A spell * A monster
Basically anything which could be said to stand by it self is a work. A sub-rule of a game rule is not a work because it is dependant upon its "parent" for making sense.
But who decides what is a "rule" vice a "subrule"? For that matter, who decides what "makes sense" on its own? If your definition were correct (that a work has to "make sense" standing on its own), i'd argue that a significant number of D20 System supplements don't qualify, and the OGC-only portions of them most certainly don't.
And don't forget WotC's pronouncement that a book and its web enhancement are "one work" for purposes of the WotC OGL. Ditto two books shrink-wrapped together. For whatever legal weight that has.
Since the OGL does not provide any definition of the term "work" we are stuck with the (varying) definitions of our respective copyright laws.
So as far as I'm concerned a collective work (such as a magazine) would not be "tainted" by OGL of it contained one or more works which were licensed under OGL.
Agreed. So two or more works, stand-alone in content, written by different authors, and in the same physical object, are distinct works, but two works, stand-alone in content, written by different authors, and in two different objects/locations are the same work.
or, in short, we have contradictory pronouncements from WotC, and the license itself doesn't give us a definition, so, no, i don't think we actually know what a "work" is in the context of the WotC OGL.
--
woodelf <*>
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://webpages.charter.net/woodelph/
"That might have been the biggest mistake of my life..." "It is unlikely. I predict there is scope for even greater mistakes in the future given your obvious talent for them." Vila and Orac, Blake's Seven _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
