>If the descriptions are OGC then any artwork based on those descriptions >would also have to be OGC. If the descriptions are NOT OGC, then we cannot >use the stats to infer anything about the critter.
letter of the WotC OGL? probably. spirit of it? i don't think so. so far, everyone seems to be operating under the assumption that "art doesn't count". even the Freeport adventures, which are "100% OGC" have closed artwork. and some of that artwork is surely illustrative of the content of the adventure. the only place that artwork or illustration is mentioned is in 1(e): "Product Identity" means product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including trade dress; artifacts; creatures characters; stories, storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork, symbols, designs, depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photographic and other visual or audio representations; names and descriptions of characters, spells, enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; places, locations, environments, creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or registered trademark clearly identified as Product identity by the owner of the Product Identity, and which specifically excludes the Open Game Content; now, a common-sense reading of this is not saying that artwork cannot be OGC (though i bet i could twist it into that, if i really tried), but the definition of OGC pretty much uses text terms, so the combination of ommission of art in the OGC definition, mention of art in the PI definition (which means to me that it's not just taht the license doesn't explicitly address visual representation), and the facts that consensus in the industry has been to only look at the text when calculating OGC %ages, and nobody has cried fowl over products being referred to as "100%" OGC when their artwork is closed (even the Free20 group intends to define 100% Open as meaning "everything except artwork is OGC"), and i think it's perfectly reasonable (though not necessarily correct) to believe that art doesn't necessarily play be the same rules as text, under the WotC OGL. [btw, that's not *my* POV--i think medium should be irrelevent. the Freeport adventures are *not* "100% Open" and shouldn't say as much; artwork *is* derivative, at least to the same degree that text is. in any case, there are at least 3 workarounds to the situation at hand. 1st, base the text on a PD source, base the artwork on that text (specific permission to illustrate the creature given one-time to that artist, not using the WotC OGL), and release only the text as OGC. 2nd, create an illustration based on PD. don't release that. create a textual description based on the illo. release that. 3rd, release the artwork as OGC. what's so unthinkable about that?] -- woodelf <*> [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://webpages.charter.net/woodelph/ If any religion is right, maybe they all have to be right. Maybe God doesn't care how you say your prayers, just as long as you say them. --Sinclair _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
