[freeroleplay] Re: Open Game License and Product Identity
- From: Ricardo Gladwell <ax0n@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: freeroleplay@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:41:42 +0000
James Jensen wrote:
> Permission is hereby granted to Use the above Product Identity in
> accordance with the Open Game License, provided that no Derivative
> Material based on this work is created which designates or carries
> with it the designation of any Product Identity that is licensed
> under terms more prohibitive than these.
>
> Also, since the OGL allows you to license PI any way you want to, you
> could also add a transparent format clause.
Good point, I didn't think of this. It would seem that this is a nice
way to circumvent the conditions of the OGL and ensure 'freer'
conditions on downstream users. Depending upon how ubiquitous the PI
contained in the document, you could effectively impose whatever
restrictions you like, as many professional d20 publishers already do.
> It seems to me that the line between non-copyrightable material and
> material that can be declared PI under the OGL is very, very thin.
> Simply declaring as much as possible to be PI could help wake people up
> to the problems with the OGL.
Whilst I agree with the sentiment, I'm unsure if its worth the effort to
make such a statement. In fact, such a gesture would be as likely to
turn the very people away that we're trying to sway. It would be equally
likely to backfire on us, and it doesn't ignore the fact that the OGL is
still GPL-incompatible.
Finally, the new SRD unfortunately does contain PI, although this would
actually be simplicity to remove.
Still, I rather enjoy the elegance of the solution, a real finger in the
eye to WotC and Ryan Dancey :)
Regards...
--
Ricardo Gladwell
President, Free Roleplaying Community
http://www.freeroleplay.org/
president@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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