> Justin Bacon
>
> That is, in short, the reasoning behind it: By closing the name, the
> company maintains effective control of the IP. Personally, I think
> they're idiots -- plain and simple. By deliberately preventing my -- a
> D20 developer -- from referencing their product they are crippling the
> network advantages inherent in the entire system.
That isn't the only reason to make the names IP, and it is far from idiotic.
In the material I have released on the net, I have made certain sections PI
such as the title of the work. One would think that this makes it
impossible to use the work, right? Well, I also included a tiny sublicense
to use my PI so long as the ENTIRE WORK containing the PI remains unchanged.
That means you can redistribute my work under its title if you don't change
anything, or under your own title if you do. So when someone refers to my
work by name, everyone knows precisely which version of my work they are
referring to.
The same applies to Monsters, Spells, Classes, or anything else. If you
don't want that game element to change, simply make the name PI and grant
license to use the PI so long as the stats and description remaining
unchanged. If others want to modify the game element, they are free to do
so, but must use a different name. Rather than crippling the network
advantage it fortifies it by keeping the names meaningful and not allowing
two slightly different versions of the same game entity to proliferate.
-Brad
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