> Tom Phillips
>
> Why does the Open Gaming License exist? The Free Software Foundation
> has released version 1.1 of the GNU Free Documentation License this past
> March.
> (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) What aspects of it are
> unacceptable to the Open Gaming Foundation (or to Mr. Dancey, WotC, or
> Hasbro)?
What makes the OGL distinct from GNU in the 'open source' sense is that it
is really a hybrid of open and close material under a single license. It
essentially allows the rules and mechanics to be open to the community with
keeping the setting and creative artistic material (both graphics and prose)
closed and protected. This allows for commercial exploitation and/or
creative control over campaign settings, game milieu, and even heroic
characters while still sharing and contributing to an open source community.
That is the key difference.
The OGL is a short read, and describes the mechanism of open and closed
material quite succinctly. It is worth reading if you want to learn more
about open source gaming.
-Brad
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For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
