On Thu, 12 Apr 2001, natalie & dave wrote:
> That's a rather broad statement that is not quite true. Under the OGL, it
> is a violation to use other people's *trademarks* without permission. You
> can refer to their books without any problems (OGL-wise) provided you avoid
> their trademarks. Easy to do, either through euphemism or inference.
>
> "Third Edition Player's Guide" is an example of one that would be ok. So is
> MM, PHB, or DMG.
There was a reason that I included the portion of Justin's message I was
responded to in my reply. If you had read that part (which you didn't
keep in your response) you would understand that your response is
incorrect and that nothing I said in my response wasn't true. The
original poster complained about people keeping names IP and indicated
that you could directly refer people to the Monster Manual whereas you
couldn't do the same with SSS's Creature Collection. I never said you
couldn't use such euphemism. But you can just as easily refer to the
Creature Collection in the same manner (altho CC probably doesn't have
quite the meaning of the others -- yet!).
The main point was the continuing misperception people keep having that
WotC published books are somehow part of the whole OGL system. They
aren't. Technically the OGL & D20STL don't permit the use anything in the
PHB, DMG, MM or whatever other books come out down the line. The OGL
&D20STL permit (or will permit once it is officially released) the use of
material in the SRD. While the SRD is based on material in WotC books, it
is irresponsible of OGL & D20 publishers to assume that because a monster
is in the MM it is available for use (or more specifically that it is
available exactly as described in the MM).
In many respects this means that WotC isn't actually taking full advantage
of the network effects and is in fact just as guilty as the people Justin
was criticizing. Which makes sense given all Ryan has said about the work
it has taken to get this far. Perhaps at some point in the future WotC
will see it as beneficial if people could simply refer people back to the
PHB, DMG, MM, etc., but that isn't the case today. In fact WotC is
protecting its IP as much if not more than anyone else publishing under
the D20STL.
alec
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