[Open_Gaming] Mixed Works?

[Githianki]

}[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > 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. }Wrong.� There are restrictions on a work containing OGC in the }OGC--mostly the trademark restrictions.� They're in effect no matter if }he text appears in OGC or not. }DM I think you missed my point overall. My last sentence quoted states that the restrictions on the use of OGC still apply.   There are three types of content here.  Content which is distributed without any OGC, content which is distributed which is itself OGC, and content which is distributed with OGC but is not itself OGC.  The first type of content has nothing to do with the OGL.  The second type clearly falls under the OGL, and the third type is mixed.  It is mixed in the sense that it contains material which is covered by the OGL (the OGC) and it contains material which is not covered (in a direct sense) by the OGL.   The OGL under Section 2 only covers OGC and only applies to the use of OGC.   Because these restrictions cover the distribution/use of OGC with regard to material that may or may not be under the OGL as well, you could argue that the other material is "covered" by the OGL or as Ryan says infected.  This is not legally correct though.  That material only bears a one-way relationship to the OGL in that the OGL defines such material in a manner that allows the restriction of the use of OGC in conjuction with such other material.  See Section 7 wording. The use of the other material is only restricted in the sense that you must choose not to use it if you wish to use OGC.   The OGL is only binding in the sense it covers the use of the OGC.   Everything else, as Ryan has pointed out, is covered by regular Copyright and Trademark law.  It may appear that other material (non- OGL'd and non-OGC) is restricted but this is a voluntary restriction you agree to in order to use the OGC.   The whole thing hinges on the fact that anything distributed with OGC (a module or a magazine) is considered a work as whole to which the defined terms of the OGL apply.  The definitions cover all the material in relation to the License but the License itself only covers the OGC. In summary, that means that while you can mix works, the use of the OGC must abide by the OGL and that means that the work overall cannot have violations of the OGL even though there may be substantial portions of the work that are not covered by the OGL.  The OGL defines all content in certain terms and makes use of those terms to define the relationship OGC must bear to non-OGC. There are things which are defined under the OGL, which may occur ANYWHERE in a work distributed WITH OGC content, that if used improperly by the terms of the OGL, invalidate the legal use of the OGC.  A person can do anything he or she wants with OGC as long as he or she follows the restrictions on the OGC and anything else distributed WITH OGC.  This is how Ryan has laid out the examples of magazines, etc.   The end result is that you can have OGC, non-OGC, and non-OGL'd material in the same work but the work overall effectively must abide by the terms of the most restricted element (the OGC). Call it infection or call it "coverage" but legally a whole work doesn't "become" OGL'd if you use OGC. -Alex Silva