>From: "J. Michael Looney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>On Wed, 27 Sep 2000, Faustus von Goethe wrote:
>
> > >From: "J. Michael Looney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > >
> > >Ah, no. Some net books are in fact illegal (or copyright/trademark
> > >violations, same thing).
> >
> > The chief value of a Netbook over OGL is that the netbook allows FANS to
>use
> > many Trademarks and much Copyright material that the OGL expressly
>forbids.
>
>And when, not if, WoTC changes the Netbook Policy, what then?
Uh >IF< WotC restrict the online use policy, then you convert your material
over to OGL. REGARDLESS of when that happens it will be easier (and
probably cheaper) if the FAN waits until that happens.
>Ok, for the record, some of the "Fans" are attempting to release NetBooks
>under the OGL. With silly ass "You can't sell this" things attached to
>them, plus violations of both the OGL and the D20STL. Now what?
For the record, THIS IS EXACTLY why counseling FANS to release under the OGL
should be discouraged. The OGL has WAY TOO MANY >legal< PITFALLS for
someone who is just interested in putting out fan material.
You want to see a FLURRY of lawsuits? Encourage FANs to stumble around
MISTAKENLY releasing your copyright work as open content - then have other
writers relying on those FANs work as "open".
> > Again, a matter of opinion.
>
>Yeah, but with both we are going to have problems, as shown above.
No one so far has succeeded in showing any problem for the USER of the
online use policy if they are just producing FAN work and don't want to sell
it.
There are ENORMOUS problems if you start having FANs (who don;t understand
the license and AREN'T going to pay to hire a lawyer) trying to release
under the OGL.
>It
>gets down to this, which would you rather WoTC keep, because I will bet
>they are only going to keep one of them. My money is in OGL/D20STL.
IMO you are wrong. Getting rid of the online use policy for FANs is
definitely not in their interests. Economically, it would fundamentally
SUBSIDIZE their D20 cempetetors at the expense of their own customer base.
Further, it is DEFINITELY not in the interests of the OGL to eliminate the
online use policy.
Faust
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