At 07:11 AM 9/7/00 -0500, Justin Bacon wrote:
>
>
>Lizard wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
>Except that there's nothing preventing me from using all of your OGL material
>while simultaneously keeping all of my material closed. And your hands are
tied
>-- it doesn't really matter how irked you are.
>
Unless you actually expand or otherwise create derivative work from it.
Further, to use it in such a document, you must still abide by the terms of
the OGL -- for example, you can't mix OGLed and non-OGLed material from
other sources, at least not as I understand it.
>> > 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 When was general trademark law repealed?
>
>This is simply a bad interpretation of trademark law, Lizard. Saying that
your
>product is compatible with someone else's is not an infringement of
trademark law
>-- the courts have ruled on this several times. Now, Wizards can go the
Palladium
>route of simply trying to sue you into oblivion and force you into an out of
>court settlement -- but that doesn't change the actual legality of the
situation.
>
'Compatible with', yes. Descriptive use of trademarks is legal, and is a
right explicitly sacrificed when using the D20 licence and OGL. HOWEVER,
I'm talking about advertising/marketing use, as well as use in-text. Saying
"Here is my page of D&D stuff" is totally legal, online policy or no online
policy. Saying "Here are my Ravenloft additions, freely using the many
trademarked terms in Ravenloft throughout the text/website, is not, at
least not as I understand the law. WOTC has been permitting this, but as
someone else noted, it's not a legally binding policy and can change at any
time.
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