[Open_Gaming] Mixed Works?

[Githianki]

**Warning** Long post The Open Gaming License applies to Open Gaming Content and the uses thereof but does not extend coverage beyond that material.  In a mixed publication that included both OGC (and may or may not specify PI itself) and non-OGC, the non-OGC falls under normal copyright law.  The restrictions on the use of OGC still apply though. 7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use any Product Identity, including as an indication as to compatibility, except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of each element of that Product Identity. You agree not to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in Open Game Content does not constitute a challenge to the ownership of that Product Identity. The owner of any Product Identity used in Open Game Content shall retain all rights, title and interest in and to that Product Identity. You must abide by the PI use restrictions and the Trademark/compatibility restrictions, in any work containing OGC.  The publication therefore may not all fall under the terms of the OGL but the use of OGC MUST abide by the license terms wherever/whenever it is used.  Claiming that all references to trademarks, etc. (assuming you wanted to circumvent the OGL) occurred in portions of the publication not covered by the OGL, would still violate the terms under which the OGC can be used.  This is because of the "work containing" portion of section 7.  A publication containing OGC is using the OGC, and therefore the license must be followed. The OGL does not apply to a/the work containing OGC, it applies to the OGC itself.  Therefore you could have mixed works but you would still be obligated to abide by every restriction on the OGC you use.  This means no works/publications like magazines can use PI or indicate compatibility with Trademarks anywhere throughout, without express permission. It sounds like Paul could do what he is describing (d20 issues aside for the moment) as long as he had any necessary permissions for the OGC. As for the d20 license, that is another thing all together and that is where the character creation restrictions come into play.  Also there are terms that are considered PI as per definition in the OGL. NOTE: This implies that PI may be defined in any work, not just material covered by the OGL, and means that PI is not necessarily a part of OGL'd material but is merely material identified according to the definitions of the OGL (i.e. clearly marked, etc.) and thereby applicable for purposes of determining restricctions on the uses of OGC. In addition the d20 bears it own set of other restrictions (such as the chracter creation stuff). First off, just downloading the files means that you agree to be bound by the terms of the license. This simply grants you the rights, etc. to use the material according to the terms in the guide. You do not have to use the material but if you do you must follow the guide restrictions.  These restrictions clearly cover a magazine or any publication, mixed OGC/non-OGC, or otherwise, websites included (look out Eric Noah :) -jk?).  This is where Paul gets nixed (or his idea at least ^_^ ). Of course fair use still allows many uses of the material (but probably the graphic enjoys much greater protection I would guess) but not in conjunction with OGC.  Since it is mandatory to have OGC in anything that uses the d20 stuff, the interlock of restrictions is pretty tight.  I assume that this doesn't apply to advertising and promotional material ? (the OGC content requirement) It is worth noting that the trademark restrictions are generally aimed at Wizards' properties.  A magazine (non-Wizards) would not be able to print an OGC containing article without the OGL license too and would not be able to use the d20 logo and d20 System trademark without following all the terms for their use. This is in addition to the restrictions that normally apply to the use of OGC.   Unfortunately, as Brad had pointed out, this places a tremendous burden on any work or publication that wished to contain content that had nothing to do with d20 or OGC.  For instance, a magazine might have an OGL article with PI for the Scarred Lands setting.  It would be possible for another article to appear containing an alternate game system to use with the setting (with permission of the setting's owner) only if the d20 logo's etc. were not used in the magazine; or if they were, only if the magazine did not violate the restrictions anywhere.  This means that any alternate system is likely to be unusable. Basically, mixed works could have little useful function if they wanted to use the d20 trademarks but it is possible.   -Alex Silva