In a message dated 09/12/2001 10:01:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> No one challenged the legal advice provided by her attorney. Questions were
> raised about the reasonableness of asking a contributor to sign away his
> rights to
> use his own creation after it became OGL.
First of all, they can still use and distribute their/our materials, they
just can't sell them. Even then, no one I have approached has liked this
aspect, but you should realize that (aside from a few _brilliant_ setting
ideas from Martin and the SRD) my husband and I are currently the _only_
authors as well as the only board members.. not just of a few modules but of
a complete system for utilizing RPGs in education. This thing is going to go
off with or without further help. So, Bryan and I are the writers who have
the most to lose by these contracts especially since we are the only ones who
_have_ to sign it.
I really have no sympathy for the "writers" because I see an intense amount
of advantage to donating this work. I have done enough volunteer work (and
discussed this enough with both an accountant and an attorney) to know that I
am not out of my mind for structuring the business in the way I have. Yes,
many, many people will have no interest in writing for us but it is worth
that loss to be able to 1. use the OGL, SRD, and have all of our work open
and 2. _maybe_ be able to use the products as membership perks or
fundraisers (for our scholarship and grant programs) due to their
all-volunteer nature.
The other thing that no one realizes is that once the core materials are
released, then BWR will have no need to maintain a writing staff because the
whole POINT of designing an open, standardized, educational system/work is so
that teachers and parents can begin to design their _own_ inserts and
modules.. and then share them, or publish them, or sell them... or whatever.
I asked about how a contract can or can't effect the OGL because I was having
a moment of doubt. On that particular day, my attorney could have told me
that the sky was blue and I _still_ would have come to this list for their
opinions. I'm sorry people think it is wrong to not pay writers ( I agree
that it completely sucks), but I have to believe that roleplaying can't
possibly be the _only_ sector in society where people aren't willing to
volunteer their talent. And if it is, then it doesn't matter because I am
fully prepared to finish this on my own.
Either way, thanks to everyone who replied.. yet again. If all of this works
then I have most of you to thank. We won't know about our 501c3 application
for a few months, at least. We are still waiting on some paperwork from our
state, but other than that it is finished. We probably have only about a 51%
chance. Regardless, now that all the contracts are finished we are going to
start playtesting with a local group and with a few Internet groups, and
hopefully we will have everything ready for release when we hear about the
decision on our application. lol.. my goal is to owe Clark as few beers as
possible. ; )
Maggie
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