[Ogf-l] OGL Product Registry Database

[HUDarklord]

One thing that might be interesting to do is for someone to set up an OGL product registration page.  It would be a bibliography of all OGL resources.  WotC has something like this now.  The list would simply be a bibliography of OGL sources.  The list would, itself, not be covered by the OGL -- as it is simply a research bibliography.  Each entry would be assigned a wholly unique identifier number, ideally with the first 3 digits representing the publisher, and the last 4 digits or so representing the individual product.

OGL-covered works could then include a citation in the form of:

Source: 007-0089

The source identifier here makes no reference to anyone's trademarks, product names, etc. and is merely a number.  However, people who want to put 2-and-2 together could go to the online research bibliography to find the source of an item.

The form of the source identifier, at a glance, allows people to know who the publisher is, if they are familiar with the publisher codes.  If WotC were "001" for instance, it would be easy to identify WotC derived OGC without using the d20 license, and without referring to WotC or it's products directly within the OGC work.

Just a thought.  It's a lot easier than negotiating individually with OGC authors for the right to credit them directly.  Mostly useful as a designator to people wanting to publish OGC.  End user's would only benefit from knowing the source of an OGC item in case they wanted to go purchase the entire original source.

Lee