Thank you. At last, a response that is well though out and "somewhat"
valid.
NOTE: I say "somewhat" only because my original post referred to WotC
Fan-based material, and this response carries it a couple of steps further.
>1) The OGL gives you access to all open material that is released under the
>OGL. If you were to use OGL material without following the restrictions
>set
>forth in the OGL, you can be sued. The fact that you are not getting paid
>for something does not prevent it from being a copyright infringement, it
>simply limits the amount of money that you can be sued for. Granted, the
>amount of open material is not very impressive right now but it will be.
>As
>more companies join the effort, which I believe they will, the amount of
>material and the quality of the material available to those who use the OGL
>will become quite tempting even for those who are producing free work.
This is valid and I agree to a certain extent, HOWEVER, I believe a "Online
Policy User" could search the web and WotC's older stuff and come up with
virtually all of the possible combinations that we as developers will use.
For instance, the "Net Book of Feats" already promises to contain over 800
different feats that can be added by fans to their games using house rules.
Rememeber that most of these feats that are published in this Netbook are
copyright of their original writer.
I seriously doubt there will be significant "original" (read - not already
available on a fan site) content that is released under the OGL. There is a
limit to the number of tweaks, and it will very quickly become difficult to
achieve anything original, at least in the D&D realm.
Remember that the FAN-BASED network is already limitlessly larger than the
OGL network will be, that THEIR stuff is ALL free, and that you don't have
to struggle for weeks to understand a license to use it.
>2) Legitimacy. Anyone can produce material and put it up on a website
>under
>the "online use policy", but professionals (and I mean the dictionary
>definition of professional: "someone who is paid for his work") in the
>industry are going to be using the OGL. Therefore it will be perceived as
>being a more legitimate because of the quality of people using. Even
>amateur work that is released as OGC will benefit from this perception.
A matter of perception, and "fans" will have to decide whether giving up
access to their favorite settings, characters, and use of the D&D (and
*ANY*) trademark, in addition to taking on a whole lot of compliance issues,
is woth the additional "legitimacy".
I disagree that this is a valid point, however, because the reality is, that
FAN loyalty is BASED on the trademark. NOBODY (with the possible exception
of us few developers) will ever be a fan of "D20" - and this is the ONLY
WotC trademark you can use if you adhere to the OGL. If you can't use "D&D"
then the fans will NOT have a use for OGL.
Personally, I think this "reason" boils down into "Because I like to take on
additional unnecessary restrictions..."
>3) WotC's "online use policy" only applies to WotC. Other companies may
>not
>be as forgiving as WotC in their policies. But if they release OGC under
>the OGL, you can gain the benefit of developing for those products or from
>those products without threat of a lawsuit. Even if that company's
>products
>are not OGC, you will probably (in the next couple of years) be able to
>find
>something very close that is OGC and will provide the same or similar
>rules, genre, etc.
This is a valid point and I agree, but it is not valid in light of my
original statement about "WotC Fan-based Material".
Thanks for the contrib...
Faust
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