-----Original Message-----
From: Brad Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Friday, September 22, 2000 2:22 PM
Subject: RE: [Open_Gaming] Marking PI and OGC
>> Christopher DeLisle
>>
>> Section 7 of the OGL states: "The use of any Product Identity in Open
Game
>> Content does not constitute a challenge to the ownership of that Product
>> Identity. " This says that PI remains PI of the owner even if it
>> appears in
>> text designated as OGC.
>
>I think this is a contradiction with 1(d), but it might not be. Here's
why:
>
>The OGL does not assign ownership. If you write material and make it OGC
>you still retain all rights to that material, and may publish it under
>normal copyright law in addition to making it available as OGC. That's how
>the d20 SRD works.
OGL doesn't assign ownership, but section 6 requires that you claim
ownership of anything you distribute under it by requiring you to "add the
title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder's name to the COPYRIGHT
NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you Distribute."
>I think this language exists in the OGL because it is a special phrase out
>of trademark law. Bear with me, because IANAL. Trademarks must be
defended
>in order to remain valid, and any claim of ownership of a mark that goes
>unanswered will cause that mark to become the property of the new claimant
>or, in the case of OGC, will cause the mark to fall into 'common usage' and
>become ineligible to be trademarks.
>
>If you place that mark in OGC then everyone can use it as part of their OGL
>works, which would normally be a problem under trademark law. This phrase
>allows marks to be placed under the OGC without such use constituting a
>challenge of ownership, thus the owner of the mark is not required to
defend
>it, and the mark remains valid.
I'm not arguing how Trademarks work, I am simply saying that the text of
Section 7 appears to protects PI even if it is listed in text marked as OGC.
>No matter what, 7 and 1(d) and 1(e) seem to be in contradiction, and one of
>them needs to be changed.
I don't see them as contradictory but I think that a lot of confusion and
misunderstanding would be alleviated if there was some text in the OGL
explicitly stating that marking something PI take presidence over marking
something OGC. An order of operations if you will.
>> If this doesn't satisfy you there's an easy solution. In the text at the
>> beginning of the product which defines what is PI and what is OGC, simply
>> state what is PI first and in the definition of what is OGC say
>> "All content in gray boxes is OGC except what has already been defined as
PI."
>
>That will work just fine.
It's nice to see we can agree on something. :) I plan on using basically
the above text in identifying PI and OGC in anything I release under OGL
just to make sure that I'm covering my butt.
Chris
www.IDrankWhat.org
www.coincidental.net
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