More from Martin Shoemaker are trying to come-up with a way to include credit as well as copyright.
alec ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 06:53:56 +0800 From: Martin L. Shoemaker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Alec A. Burkhardt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: [Ogf-l] OGC designation for Tome of Horrors > The compilation idea is interesting. The one problem I see is that a > compilation typically means the material has been copyrighted outside of > and prior to the compilation. That typically isn't the case with OGL > products. But it's a pretty good analogy to start working from. That's why I suggested we coin our own term, much like Wizards coined Product Identity: so we can discuss a proposed contractual concept without confusing it with existing legal concepts. Compendium, Gatherium, Collection, Cyclopedia... all these have both gaming history and the right connotation of a work that contains other works. If we can devise and settle on a term for an OGC work made up of Units of OGC that share a common copyright but each have individual credits, then in this proposed vision where our communal practices may influence a court's interpretation, we'll have established a useful new OGC format that it sounds like a lot of people need. It sounds like Clark, Mike, the whole Netbook crowd, and probably others are wanting to do a very noble thing, honestly: ensure credit to the creators of individual items, beyond simply the credit of a copyright on a whole work. So to our discussion, I add the following suggested definitions: **************************************************************** SOURCE CREDIT: An indication that supplements copyright by identifying the source of a particular Unit of Open Game Content. UNIT OF OPEN GAME CONTENT: A clearly identified section of Open Game Content for which exactly one Source Credit is applicable. COMPENDIUM: A work of Open Game Content that includes one or more Units of Open Game Content. **************************************************************** Now though mine may not be the best names for these, it sounds like these concepts are things people would like to see available. The next part gets trickier: for these definitions to have contractual meaning, they would have to be included in a revision to the OGL; and for them to have the PARTICULAR meaning we would like, s.6 would have to be revised to look something like this (please forgive my amateur lawyering if I've committed any grave mistakes here): **************************************************************** 6.Notice of License Copyright: 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 and the exact text of the SOURCE CREDIT of any Units of Open Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing (attached to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE for the Compendium which includes the Unit of Open Game Content), and You must add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder's name to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you Distribute and (if the original Open Game Content constitutes a Compendium) the SOURCE CREDIT for each original Unit of Open Game Content. **************************************************************** Now though this looks simple to my non-lawyer brain, the tricky part (of course) is that we can't do this. Only WotC and their lawyers can do this. And most of us recall how long it would take Ryan to push things through legal once he (often with our help) ironed out a wrinkle in the license. Well, from the sounds of things, Anthony is now busier than Ryan ever was; so I would fear that things would move even more slowly now. Martin L. Shoemaker Martin L. Shoemaker Consulting http://www.MartinLShoemaker.com http://www.UMLBootCamp.com _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
