[freeroleplay] Re: Descriptive vs. Proscriptive, frpgc.org vs. freeroleplay.org

  • From: "Per I. Mathisen" <per@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: freeroleplay@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 16:03:53 +0000 (GMT)

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005, Ricardo Gladwell wrote:
> > As to the OGL, I think it should fall into the 'non-free' category as
> > long as its main backer insists you cannot make computer games with
> > it.
>
> I thought that was only the d20? Does the OGL restrict software
> development as well?

Yep. According to
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/oglfaq/20040123i :

  Q: How can the OGL be used with software?
  ...
  The key is that the user has to see everything that is Open Content that
  the program uses and be able to understand it without too much effort.
  The whole point of the OGL is that once information is declared Open
  everyone has free access to it under the OGL. Compiling that
  information into a program denies the user that access and violates the
  spirit of the Open Gaming License."

So you cannot compile it into a program. The only alternative to Open
Content is Product Identity, which is closed, and the OGL does not play
well with any other license, so the whole program would have to be OGL, or
none of it.

Also http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/oglfaq/20040123f :

  Q: I want to distribute computer software using the OGL. Is that
  possible?

  A: Yes, it's certainly possible. The most significant thing that will
  impact your effort is that you have to give all the recipients the right
  to extract and use any Open Game Content you've included in your
  application, and you have to clearly identify what part of the software
  is Open Game Content.

  One way is to design your application so that all the Open Game Content
  resides in files that are human-readable (that is, in a format that can
  be opened and understood by a reasonable person). Another is to have
  all the data used by the program viewable somehow while the program
  runs.

  Distributing the source code not an acceptable method of compliance.
  First off, most programming languages are not easy to understand if the
  user hasn't studied the language. Second, the source code is a separate
  entity from the executable file. The user must have access to the
  actual Open Content used. "

So you also cannot include Open Content in source code.

I believe this is deliberate, since Wizards sole the exclusive right to
make games under D20 rules to Atari.

  - Per

"Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as
a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which
it was intended to solve. " - Karl Popper

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