Neal Rogers wrote:
> I would have to disagree with that based on my reading
> of the fact sheet on games at the copyright office.
> [http://www.loc.gov/copyright/fls/fl108.pdf]
I am not a lawyer. You are not a lawyer. Ryan Dancy is not a lawyer.
Therefore, we really aren't qualified to interpret the law anymore than
Rush Limbaugh is qualified to be president.
Furthermore, when people who are qualified tell us that the law is
ambiguous, then we should believe them.
In fact, since none of us nor anyone who's direct comments I have heard
of is a judge writing the opinion of a court, *no one* can say whether
or not you can, rule for rule and name for name, reproduce D&D.
We can tell that you are liketly to get sued if you're rule for rule and
name for name. (i.e., you have classes with spells, and the spells are
awfully similar to D&D.)
We can also tell that, even if you *could* do a rule for rule and name
for name conversion, you'd have to rewrite *everything.*
The OGL gives us two really big advantages. The first one is that,
regardless of the "rule for rule and name for name" (RfR&NfN)
copyrightability of game systems, we can make a game that is RfR&NfN
equal to D&D and simply point to the OGL as permission. Unless the
other party proves that we violated the OGL, the case will be dismissed.
The second part, which *is* something we can't do without the OGL, is
that we can copy the SRD *word for word.* We don't need to re-write the
rules--we can just cut and paste, and add in some examples if we want
to. This lets us not duplicate time and effect, thus letting us make a
profitable product of the same rules, instead of spending all the
profits in re-wriring D&D.
D&D and the OGL is just like what would happen if Microsoft released
their source code under a open source licence, even one modified like
the OGL. Automatically this license would be the most valuable one in
the marketplace, not because of its intrinsic values, but because that
the most popular and widespread system is now avaliable for derivation
under it.
DM
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