Clarifications:
>I am assuming that the new class used previously produced OGL material such
>as the d20SRD. Given this, the new class *must* be OGL. If the new class
Whoa. Not at all (well, maybe a little bit.) I can take the D20 SRD,
develop a new class using those rules, then publish the new class as my own
creation and retain the copyright of that class. If I wrote it right, the
ONLY thing that would be OGL would be the greyed-out "Stats Block"
description of the basic "numbers" that make up the class. The writeups of
NAME of the class, decription, background, picture, suggested story hooks,
and place in the campaign I could easily maintain copyright over, if I
chose.
>I believe the base assumption is that ANY new "rule"
>written in an OGL document is OGL'd.
Also not at all. Not even a little bit in this case. If you specifically
designated those new rules which were your creations, the written text for
those rules are your copyright. If you make this clear specification, then
*your* additoinal work is copyrightable, because the "borrowed" content can
clearly and easily be separated from the new content.
The legal essence of the D20 STL that (I believe) has not been clearly
expressed up to now (and took me a LONG time to figure out), is that WotC is
authorizing the creation of derivative works based on the core gaming system
contained in the D20 SRD. This means that (by definition) they are giving
up the right to claim ownership(*) of those derived works. These rules are
clearly outlined at:
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ14.pdf
(*) More precisely, from a strict legal definition, they are giving up the
right to DENY ownership of the "new" parts of a derivative work to the
author.
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