On Thu, 29 Mar 2001, Brad Thompson wrote:
> That was the whole point of the OGL, not to answer the question of
> whether this kind of usage is infringement, but rather to say that
> whether it is or not you are guaranteed the right to use it if it is OGL.
>
> If you choose to ignore this 'safe harbor' and make your '6th level elf
> ranger with Dodge, Expertise, Darkvision and a Brown Bear animal companion'
> PI, that is your business. But you shouldn't kid yourself into thinking
> that you are within the safe harbor if you do so.
Frankly, I disagree that there is any such thing as a safe
harbor. For example, Mayfair Games had a contractual agreement with
TSR for how to use it's trademark which was precisely to clarify the
"grey area" of trademark use. This didn't stop TSR from suing them.
Similarly, given all the confusion people have over the OGF+STL,
I think that if they really wanted to, WotC could in practice find
grounds to sue.
Nothing will totally protect you from being sued -- the most
it can do is give you material to win. The implication of William
Olander's post (as I read it) was the WotC could at this point
successfully sue the current d20 producers for copyright violations,
since the SRD is not currently open. I think this would be extremely
difficult for WotC, even if they wanted to do it (which they probably
wouldn't since I think it would seriously harm their sales).
The point is I don't believe it requires much faith in the
good graces of WotC to publish typical current d20 products, which
are D&D supplements very similar to the pre-OGL products that were
published as being "For use with any Fantasy RPG system". Publishing
such things pre-OGL was a bit risky but doable. Publishing them
post-OGL, pre-SRD (i.e. the current situation) is much safer. It
should not be viewed as an unsafe risk that relies on faith.
- John
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