Okay, the new d20 magazine is probably the first thing Wizards has actually published with OGC in it. However, let's say I actually want to use this stuff, as is the point of OGC. What would one use as the copyright notice? The OGL published in the magazine (pg 17) only references the OGL and SRD copyright. Since you're supposed to copy the copyright section (#15) exactly and then add your own copyright notice, one could easily say that you could use any OGC in the article without crediting anyone at all.
Now, most articles have a convenient "OGC Tracker," detailing what is and isn't open (perfectly in compliance with Section 8). However, the copyright notices in these boxes are, at best, vague and noncompliant, and at worst, nonexistent. There's nothing in the OGL about copying copyright information from anywhere but Section 15, the copyright in these OGC Trackers is meaningless for OGC purposes. In some cases, the copyright is even nonexistent. Take, for example, the article "Black Riders and Bone Horses." I could reuse the OGC in it without crediting the author, Wolfgang Baur, in any way, as the OGC Tracker for that article makes no mention of copyrights, and neither does Section 15. So I take the material from that article, republish it amongst my own, add the OGL, copy Section 15 from the magazine (which just has the OGL and the SRD) and add my own copyright. At best, Mr Baur would slip into obscurity down my piece of the OGL chain, at worst, I would be receiving credit for material I didn't create. (Since it's not the in SRD, and mine is the only other copyright, I must have created it.). I think Wizards definitely made an error here. They either incorrectly took OGC from other works and violated their own license, or they licensed that material directly from people and did them a grave disservice when republishing it (or possibly made a breach of Authority to Contribute, since if they licensed it that probably didn't include the right open it without proper credit), or maybe there's some other term for it, I suppose they could have licensed or bought every article individually, including the right to redistribute and Open it without credit, though that seems quite unlikely. But I don't see many other scenarios in which this magazine could be a compliant piece of Open Gaming material. Granted the magazine format is new territory, but you'd think if anyone would find a non-loophole and 100% compliant way, it would be Wizards. -Damian _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
