NETBOOKS: You should most certainly avoid using netbooks in anything but
another netbook. Netbooks are almost always compilations of other material
from numerous different sources, almost always without any regard to
copyright or ownership of the work. If you are publishing or placing the
information under the OGL, you do not have the legal authority to do this
unless you are the original author.
ALWAYS REMEMBER that just because someone publishes something on the
internet that that does *NOT* make it public domain. The original author
still holds the copyright to that work.
If you later SELL your compilation, *anyone* who originally contributed to
that netbook can take you to court.
The plain fact of the matter is, that if you are doing work that you never
plan to sell, you probably should *not* use the OGL. You will have
enormously more flexibility if you just take advantage of WotC's online use
policy.
OPEN GAME CONTENT: Further, if you use work that has been COMPILED under
the OGL and you intend to sell your resulting product, you should be *very*
careful that all of the contributors had the legal authority to "open" the
works that they published as open.
Why? What are the ramifications? If you just spent $10,000 to print off
2000 copies of a supplement that has *ONE PARAGRAPH* of material that you
are not allowed to use, then the original author can block you from *ever*
distributing it.
Further (and more likely) if you have already distributed 10,000 copies then
the original author of that paragraph can sue you not only for damages, but
also to force you to buy back all of the unsold materials from your
retailers.
"But the OGL protects me from this." This is not the case at all. The
"injured party" would come after you. You would be liable for the damages.
You *would* have the right to go back to the person that erroneously
"opened" the content and try to get those damages back from them - but if
you got the stuff online for all you know the "erroneous opener" might be
some 12 year old kid living in Eastern Europe.
Not a good situation...
Faust
>>From: chris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>>What about the content in the d20srd? say for example, you created a
>>database of skills or feats, could you use the skills in the d20srd in
>>that database? are the contents in d20srd free to distribute on
>>websites? If not, why? I can't say after reading the ogl I have a clear
>>understanding of what is legal and not legal.
>
>AFIAK, you can distribute the D20SRD with *ANYTHING* that follows the terms
>of the OGL.
>
>OTOH, you should probably get the permission from the authors of the
>netbooks before including them.
>
>
>DM
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