Todd Landrum wrote: >Sorry if this is a rehashed question (the archive only has Jan?) and not to >open the software/OGL can of worms again, but what constitues a derivative >work? > From my POV, everything that you can write up and put into a for-sale book because of the OGL is a derivitive work.
Personally, I think *all* game rules and stat blocks should be, with an excemption for fluffed-up descriptions of these rules. >My program provides a form where, for example, spells can be entered. It has >titles like "Target/Area of Effect" which would be from the SRD but, for >purposes of this discussion, there is no data there - just labels/words. >Just by using those words it is derivative? > It's not just using words. It is using the *concepts* from the SRD. Sure, you can probably find a lawyer or five hundred (I live in NY, which has more lawyers-per-capita than any other state) that will argue in court that just because your program follows the form of the SRD doesn't make it derivitive... but unless you want to go hire those lawyers and feed them capital, I think you should err far on the side of caution. Any easy fix is just to make more things OGC. Think about it this way; what, actually, do would you lose if your entire product was OGC? >It seems analagous to a character sheet. Is a character sheet derivative? > I'd wager that they are. Then again, IANAL. DM _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
