C'mon, Dave--you know I can't smoke crack with $.37 of spare change--not even in Albany!
Dave & Natalie wrote: > No, but if someone took your OGC and USED IT in a published product, > which they then lost the rights to use because of your > irresponsibility, THEY could come and take the house. Maybe. Someone who takes from an online project and uses it in a printed work still has the protection from WotC of the OGL--and unless they base their entire adventure on the specific stats of the Shadow Dragon, they can reasonably fix it. Anyone who releases a for-profit OGL work should realize that they can lose a lot of money on it--and so they should, and do, review any outside OGL before they accept it. Especially if it's from someone who obviously didn't have a lawyer look it over. > Please, everyone understand this perfectly clearly: > > YOU CANNOT BASE ANY WORK OFF OF PRIVATELY HELD IP AND THEN RELEASE IT > AS OGC!!! True. But that's not the "Safe Harbor." The "Safe Harbor" is "you do this, and we won't sue you as you have permission." The clear waters of the Safe Harbor is copying and making derivitive works of text that is clearly marked as OGC--you have permission to do this, no matter what. The muddy waters are "new OGC" that's really only an adaptation of someone else's idea (for example, oh, hobbits in early D&D). You might have the authority to contribute because copyright law doesn't deal with that--but that's how the law is normally. The (very) muddy Safe Harbor is only the part that gives you 30 days to fix a problem. The waters of the Safe Harbor as *also* muddy if you derive from multiple sources. Taking from the SRD is fine. Taking from the SRD and a major book that's been out for a year and WotC's reviewed from is fairly clear. Taking from a dozen fanboys's work is rather not clear at all. > The answer is yes, but make sure it does not look TOO MUCH like a 2E > Shadow Dragon (and the "too much" line is *really fuzzy*). FOEX if > the name were the same AND the breath weapon effects were identical, > you have probably crossed the line. :) Always remember two things: 1: Doug is not a lawyer, or experienced, and is about as reliable on this as a randomly selected pre-release of open source software is. (y'know, the ones that have "this software will destroy your PC" in the EULA.) 2: If you do anything OGL, *BE PREPARED TO LOSE IT ALL!* Don't mortage your house for it if you can't afford the extra mortage. It's a gamble that pays off for a few, and leaves a few with very little except tales for their children, and lets a few get back what they gambled in the first place. DM _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
