"What the license says is much closer to "copy the text that appears in Section 15" than "follow the author's instructions regarding copyright notices."
Interpretation. What the section of the license says is: "You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing" Incorporating material from other sources is a time honored priciple. Granted, I am stretching it a bit since the work "exact" has a very common meaning. It does not say "copy the text that appears in Section 15". I do agree that "copy the text" is probably the general interpretation of the passage. But that section is unclear. They cant really mean "exact". Here is why. I make a product. That product uses the OGL and the SRD. Here is section 15 from the OGL: 15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. So I have to put that in my section 15 exactly as is. Here is the section 15 from the SRD: 15 Copyright Notice Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. System Rules Document Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. So do I have to list the OGL TWICE?!? If "exactly" meant "exactly" then I would. Lets compound the problem. Lets say I also use open content from Relics and Rituals. Here is the section 15 from R&R: Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. System Rules Document Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Creature Collection Copyright 2000, Clark Peterson Relics & Rituals Copyright 2001, Clark Peterson Does that mean my section 15--which has to use the "exact" text from the section 15 of all ogc products i use--has to contain the following: Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. System Rules Document Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. System Rules Document Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Creature Collection Copyright 2000, Clark Peterson Relics & Rituals Copyright 2001, Clark Peterson That would be using the "exact" tect from the COPYRIGHT NOTICE. Note that the license itself doesnt say only that part of the copyright notice that is new. It says the whole friggin notice. So I propose that exactly doenst mean "exactly" Does that give me some wiggle room? Clark ===== http://www.necromancergames.com "3rd Edition Rules, 1st Edition Feel" __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
