>From: "Lenze, Troy, (DC-Cap)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >I am considering submitting some material for the Relics & Rituals 2 open >call that I've released as OGC through the >DnDCC/FaNCC. Since the R&R 2 contract is "work for hire," S&SS gets all >rights to material that I submit and they use in return for me being paid. >Now, how does that affect the OGC I've already released? Or does it? Does >S&SS gain copyright over the material I've already published as OGC?
Troy: If their contract is like *every* other work-for-hire contract I have seen (and I have seen a lot, having reviewed at least forty in the last six months) then it contains a clause where you certify that the work is not under license already to someone else. If you have already released it under the OGL, then you cannot sign such a document, since you have already licensed it to THE WORLD. (Remember the "world-wide, non-revokable, royalty-free license" part?) ABOUT WORK-FOR-HIRE (lengthy & dull - might want to skip to the end) There is a lot of legal theory here, but it basically boils down to the reality that a "work-for-hire" contract is only legitimate if you actually DO THE WRITING for the specific commission that you are getting paid for. You are literally hired (in advance) to do writing work for the company. This work is the COMPANY's work (because they paid you to write it). So they have the copyright. COPYRIGHTS cannot be transferred. This is an important legal concept to understand if you are a writer. If YOU WROTE IT, then you hold the copyright. You can sell a LICENSE of those rights, but you can never lose them entirely. You will always be "the copyright holder". The only exception to this under the law is the "work-for-hire" agreement, and it has to be applied rather rigidly for it to be enforceable. Now, take a look at the OGL, and you will see that the ONLY person that can release something under the OGL is the original copyright holder. NOT a licensee. This means that NO COMPANY can legally release original OGL material unless it was written in-house (i.e. under a work-for-hire agreement.) Notice I say "unless it was written under...", not "unless it was sold to them under...". To be legitimate, work-for-hire material must be written IN RESPONSE TO a signed work-for-hire agreement. So the notion of submitting "previously done work" under a work-for-hire agreement is a mistaken one. A work-for-hire isn't a work-for-hire unless the work is done for the hiring. Now, IN PRACTICE - small (and large) gaming companies "purchase" items under work-for-hire agreements all the time. It doesn't cause problems because the authors never sue to recover their work. Moreover, the larger and more important works (the PHB foex) are done by staff writers in actual work-for-hire situations. Now what you COULD DO is take your OWN OGL work as published in DNDCC, write a NEW PIECE incorporating your old OGL, and sell that to S&S as work-for-hire. If you did that, however, you would have to attach the OGL to it, and they would have to add YOUR DNDCC copyright line to the contributor credits part of the OGL in their new book. The might have some reservations about buying this - particularly if they could just go to the DNDCC and get it for themselves under the same terms - but it never hurts to try. Faust >From: "Lenze, Troy, (DC-Cap)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: "'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [Ogf-l] Work for hire and Previously Published works >Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 14:29:58 -0500 > >I am considering submitting some material for the Relics & Rituals 2 open >call that I've released as OGC through the DnDCC/FaNCC. Since the R&R 2 >contract is "work for hire," S&SS gets all rights to material that I submit >and they use in return for me being paid. Now, how does that affect the >OGC >I've already released? Or does it? Does S&SS gain copyright over the >material I've already published as OGC? >_______________________________________________ >Ogf-l mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l _________________________________________________________________ Join the world�s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
