On 9/8/00 1:34 PM, Faustus von Goethe ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote
>That's not what he is referring to. He's talking about the fact that
>virtually all of the original D&D stuff (except the rules, which can't be
>copyrighted) was based largely on books, movies, stories, myths, legends,
>history, etc - material in the "public domain". There is a small but vocal
>contingent on some boards that feel that because of this, the whole system
>should be returned to that status.
Right. I'm not a member of that contingent, by the way -- I feel that
Gygax, TSR, and WotC all added a lot of value to the public domain
fantasy elements they incorporated into the Dungeons and Dragons game,
and that it's very fair that they be allowed to profit off of those
additions. I also think it's fair (in my opinion, if it's not already
clear) for someone to make use of WotC's online policy, put stuff on
their web site, and not let other people make use of it. Their creation,
their rules, as long as they follow the online policy. Other people are
welcome to go back to the primary source (D&D) and do their own work.
On the other hand, I'm all in favor of WotC being generous enough to let
people profit off of their works. And I don't mind licenses that
"infect", since that's how I do things anyway -- I do have my own
WotC-derived material on my site, and the only favor I ask of anyone who
makes use of it is noting where they got it from (I do slap my copyright
notice on it, but it's a "boilerplate" that goes onto all my web pages).
I'm a big believer in "bread cast upon the waters", which is one of the
driving forces (one of) behind open software and I'd say the OGL.
What I disagree on (and I've had this out with Open Software folks too)
is that being Open is imperative or ethical or required. I think it's
just a sensible choice and probably good karma, but that other forms of
distribution have merits as well.
--
Russ Taylor (http://www.cmc.net/~rtaylor/)
CMC Tech Support Manager
Otto: "Apes don't read philosophy."
Wanda: "Yes they do, Otto, they just don't understand it!"
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For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
