No he wasn't a new list member. He has been around a while.
<rant>
The small publishers are the most exposed. Example a mid-sized publisher
commits an infraction due to a mis-reading of the OGL. The fix is to recall
the product and pay a $10,000 fine. Not a great solution but likely. Same
Infraction Small/Personal publisher. Same fix. Can you say "second
mortgage"? or "Out of Business"?
My father and I owned our own delivery service for 4 years. We lost it
because we were small and didn't think we could afford to use a lawyer. We
lost a contract dispute and all of our assets. I would spare anyone else
that feeling. Funny thing is it was the first contract we ever signed, it
seemed strait-forward. We missed that renewal was at their option, not ours.
They renewed, we had made other committments because they paid poorly. They
cried "breach of contract" WE LOST EVERYTHING. If you can't afford to lose
everything, get a lawyer. If you don't CYA You will lose your A.
<rant/>
Sorry, touchy subject.
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Rogers Cadenhead [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 9:47 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [Open_Gaming] Plain Engrish License
At 04:10 AM 3/30/2001 -0500, "Martin L. Shoemaker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Ah, but the questions of the form, "I'm new here. Can I...?" demand the
>obligatory advice to seek counsel, just so the new folks understand this is
>serious business.
All that accomplished was to scare off a new list member who had some of the
same misconceptions many of us did about this being an open-source
movement instead of a D&D developer's network.
I think the people who need legal advice before using the OGL and D20
already
know that, because they have been publishing and dealing with intellectual
property
issues independent of OGL/D20.
As for the rest of us -- small publishers, web-only hobbyists and the like
-- if we
make a good faith effort to comply with the license, I don't think we're
risking a lot
by leaving lawyers out of the mix. (We're certainly risking less than the
companies
that are already publishing OGL/D20 material without a final draft of the
licenses --
behavior that can't be thrilling their lawyers.)
Rogers Cadenhead
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.cadenhead.org
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