> From: Steve Peterson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> EABA by > Blacksburg Tactical Research Center (www.btrc.net) is > released under the EABA Open Supplement License. Unfortunately, it isn't. The Open Supplement License doesn't cover EABA at all; it attempts to create a licensing mechanism for making additional content that is compatible with EABA. EABA itself is still a closed game. For those of you scoring at home, here are my issues with the license: (http://www.btrc.net/files/eabafree/EABA%20OSLv10.pdf) Stylistically, either group all the definitions into one paragraph, or give them each a separate paragarph - but don't make ad hoc groups. 3.2 is so vague as to make the rest of the license useless. Who decides if the material I've created is "conceptually" reproducing a rule? And since you can't copyright the conceptual use of a rule anyway, what benefit am I getting from this license in the first place? 3.3 means the work is not truly open. If I produce a PDF file, the cost to providing BTRC a free copy is meaningless. But what if I produce a $10,000 supplement? Or a $1 million computer game? Or anything else of real monetary value? Suddenly the cost to use the license has become a barrier to using the license. 8. The license mixes a copyright license and a trademark license. My opinion is that this structure is inherintly flawed and may (due to quirks in the law) actually become less enforceable than if two separate licenses were used instead. Larger issues: What, exactly, does this license give me the right to do that I do not already have? Unless there are copyrightable portions of EABA which I need to intermingle with my own content in order to make a work compatible with EABA, it appears to license me nothing. The license does not discuss the impact of 3rd party derivative works. In other words, the license does not grant universal access to content created by the license to anyone (including BTRC!). This creates a "hub & spoke" property environment - the "hub" is usable by everyone, but the derivative works created thereby are usable by nobody but their original creator. All in all, I don't consider this license an Open Game license. Ryan _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
