From: "Martin L. Shoemaker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Well, not quite. You can write code derived from the d20 SRD, without using the d20 System Trademark License, just the OGL.
This is sort of how RPM works (being through Wizards scrutiny - with no outstanding complaince issues for a long time).* Some believe the source has to be released, period.* Some believe the source has to be released UNLESS you can make a generic engine that parses scripts/data files but itself encompasses NO OGC AT ALL. In other words, if you fed it different scripts, you'd end up playing Champions, not D&D. The engine could understand die-rolling conventions, etc. It could create databases of particular kinds of information. In that case, the scripts/data files would have to be open.
RPM (RolePlayingMaster) is itself a binary, but does not contain any OGC content itself. The binary is closely meshed with a purpose-built RPG scripting engine and database, which does contain all the core OGC content. Effectively, the OGC in RPM is "open source", being openly viewable, and not copyright. It just isn't much good in its current form without RPM to run it. Kind of like how a Word document can be made non-copyright, but you might need Word to be able to view it. Of course, if a different RPM-compatible engine showed up (kind of like how StarOffice is to Word - almost), then it could run just as effectively.
The key point is that all the OGC is viewable, particularly the tougher algorithms which aren't easily implemented without a scripting language.
This is all in accordance with the Wizards interpretation of their own license (as detailed by "The Andy" on the ENWorld software message boards some weeks ago).
Its not actually a rquirement that you should be able to plug in a different gaming system...
Luke
PS:
Good to see some activity on this list again!
Perhaps we were shocked into silence a while ago, when Wizards not only showed good faith with a massive official SRD content release, but even did a D20 Modern SRD release timed with the D20 Modern release itself! ;)
Now I've just got to wait on 2 of my hobby horses, that Ryan Dancey indicated should appear on Wizards' agenda:
1) Perhaps WotC would like to address the gap between the SRD on monster races and the Monster Manual descriptions (and even pictures?), to get legal compliance in 3rd party publishing.
2) Release of a new OGL version that properly alerts software developers to the peculiarities of the Wizard's licsence interpretation (ie. "clearly marked OGC" = "human readable" ).
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