> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Steve Peterson > Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 7:53 PM > To: OGF-L > Subject: [Ogf-l] Possible problem with PIing Art > > > For example, I produce a supplement and hire artists with a non-exclusive > contract then include that art in my product and make a claim such as "all > art is Product Identity". Publisher X then comes along, uses some of my open > content text and then contacts the artists I used and pays them for > non-exlcusive rights to the art that appeared in my product. Even though > PubX includes my publication in their Section 15, and thus must abide by my > PI designations, since I signed a non-exclusive contract with the artist I > don't have the right to actually claim PI on the art and thus PubX can > include the art I used in their material. At least my suspicion is that this > is the way a court of law would see it if the case ever got to one.
I am not a lawyer, but I suspect this is a non-issue for a couple of reasons. First, I think you're essentially correct, because it may not be useful for art to be Product Identity. Recall the kinds of content you can have in an OGL-licensed work: * Open Gaming Content, clearly indicated. This copyrighted material is licensed for use under the OGL. In order to license such material, you must have authority to contribute it. If art were released as OGC, then it would qualify as OGC. I know that's obvious, but I want to be clear that art can be OGC. * Standard material, copyrighted as normal but not licensed for use under the OGL. Sometimes called "closed content", this is really just material that is covered by standard copyright law and not by the OGL. Art can certainly be standard material. * Product Identity, clearly identified. This is material which is not released under the OGL even if it happens to appear within the clear indications of Open Gaming Content. (Arguably, it is a form of OGC, for legal reasons Alec once explained: the OGL only applies to the things it covers, and thus not to standard material; and thus, Product Identity designations have no meaning outside of OGC. I trust Alec to get this more right than me; but I think it's simpler to think of Product Identity as closed content.) The purpose of Product Identity is NOT to claim ownership; rather, it is to DISCLAIM licensing under the OGL. So the only benefit for declaring art as PI is to allow you to include it in areas that are otherwise indicated as OGC. While I can see cases where this would happen -- the most obvious is to protect art that appears in an otherwise entirely open work -- I think there are easier ways to indicate this. For instance, instead of saying, "This entire work is released as OGC," you can say, "The entire text of this work is released as OGC. The art is copyright by Bob the Artist." So I think you can get the same benefits without PI. Second, I think there are many cases where you're right that the publisher does not have the right to claim the art as Product Identity. But in those cases, I think that would be because the publisher also does not have the right to license the art as OGC, so PI is irrelevant. And third, once again: PI is not a claim of ownership, it's a disclaim of licensing under the OGL. All it says is, "This isn't OGC, even if it appears in the middle of OGC." So no one is licensed to reuse that work under the OGL. But if you have purchased limited rights, the author is very likely within his rights to relicense the work to others. The other licensee need not heed your PI designation in this case, because he has a separate license where the OGL is irrelevant. All PI says is, "You do not have a license for this under the OGL." It doesn't say whether you have some other sort of license. Martin L. Shoemaker Martin L. Shoemaker Consulting, Software Design and UML Training [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.MartinLShoemaker.com http://www.UMLBootCamp.com _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
