While its not the authority on the subject,
http://www.rpgevolution.com/issue1-2/, has a nice article in their latest
online mag, The d20 License: An Explanation
(http://www.rpgevolution.com/issue1-2/d20explain.html). BYW, I'm not
affiliated with them in any way.
I think we can analyze the wording of the OGL to death, and still be right
where we started. When I read it the first time, I was confused, but after
a second read, I understood that:
-All OGL contents are open. However, if the author "clearly identifies"
something as "product identify", than that content is trademarked. For
example, the d20 system trademark, which has its own license.
-The original author must be credited with the work.
-Anything open must stay open, allowing an author to take a revision of or
addition to his work, and add it to his own product.
I think its important that we know the documents purpose, more so than
analyzing the wording. Some of said that the GPL is worded poorly, but the
fact is, it has never been tested in court because there is a common
understanding at that license's intent. Anyway, that's my 2 cents.
>
> 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
> >_________________________________________________________________________
> >Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
> >
> >Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
> >http://profiles.msn.com.
> >
> >-------------
> >For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
>
> _________________________________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
>
> Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
> http://profiles.msn.com.
>
> -------------
> For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
-------------
For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
