Faustus von Goethe wrote:
>
> Where's the benefit if you do not plan to sell? There are plenty of
> downsides to using OGL if you are developing "not-for-profit", but I don't
> see the benefits. Maybe you could fill us in on on what you see as the
> upside.
Access to all other OGL material.
I know that if I put material under the OGL, and see it used in a
non-OGLed document, I will be a bit irked.
Why use GNU? Because it lets you use all the other stuff produced under
GNU.
> There are three downsides that I see to using OGL if you can use the online
> use policy:
> 1. Risk.
> 2. Flexibility.
> 3. Trademarks.
>
> 1. RISK: If you use the online use policy *nobody* will mistake your work
> for open source, and you will not be at any risk of "mislabelling" somebody
> elses closed content as open. Should you choose to use the OGL and
> mistakenly "open" someone elses copyright work then you would be legally
> liable for the resulting damages - and THAT could be some serious cash,
> depending on the circumstances.
You are legally liable if you use someone elses copyrighted work WITHOUT
the OGL. Technically, all those thousands of people using scanned
TSR/WOTC/WW/etc art on their sites are violating copyright. Whether or
not anything actually happens to them doesn't alter that fact.
> 2. FLEXIBILITY: Want to develop in the Forgotten realms? You *never* will
> if you use the OGL.
Unless WOTC permits you to use the trademark, you can't to that without
the OGL.
> 3. TRADEMARKS: If you ise OGL, you can never say "This module is for D&D
> 3E", "... Forgotten Realms", "... Ravenloft", "... whatever".
>
Ditto. When was general trademark law repealed?
If the current WOTC web policy is to allow the use of Ravenloft, etc,
trademarks freely in not-for-profit works, I would *assume* they would
continue to offer such rights under the OGL. The OGL doesn't prohibit
someone from permitting the use of trademarks;it just requires such
permission be given. A statement from WOTC to the effect of "You may use
Raveloft, et al, in your OGL documents provided no commercial,
advertising, or marketing use is made of them" would seem to be totally
consistent with the current license. Indeed, I would not be surprised to
see a 'revised web policy' to the effect of 'If you use our trademarks
WITHOUT using the OGL, we will be forced to send our lawyers after you'.
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