Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong about the OGL and SRD

Re:Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong a... by kaanski on Friday January 06, 2023 @02:46AM (#34272051)

OGL refers to the Open Game License.

Essentially you are allowed to use the rules of DnD (and other games that use the license) to make derivative work as long as its also published with OGL.

It allows homebrewed content to exist and is part of the reason the DnD community is so big.

WoTC (Wizards of the Coast, the owner of DnD) is “updating” the license from 1.0 to 1.1 and is using the update as an excuse to clamp down on competition and limit what can be used.

This has a far reaching effect because 1.0 would be revoked which means lots of content that has already been created would be put in a grey area, WoTC could sue anyone who made content for ownership even if it was made with the previous license.

It also puts entire games like Pathfinder into question as these are essentially modded DnD.

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Re:Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong a... by forgotpwd16 on Friday January 06, 2023 @03:17AM (#34272275)

>WoTC could sue anyone who made content for ownership even if it was made with the previous license.

Unless I misunderstand, according to the submitted thread this isn't the case.

>The good news is that, because of the reliance principle, third party creators who have already created a work under the OGL likely could continue to sell that work even if the OGL were revoked. They just could not create any new works.

Although that "likely" gives doubts.

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Re:Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong a... by pessimizer on Friday January 06, 2023 @03:36AM (#34272403)

It doesn't give doubts about whether WoC could sue, it's giving an opinion that WoC would probably lose if they did.

> WoTC could sue anyone

isn't contradicted at all by that opinion.

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Re:Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong a... by forgotpwd16 on Friday January 06, 2023 @05:38AM (#34273177)

Technically right but believe the actual issue is whether such a suitcase could pose a threat.

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Re:Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong a... by kingofpandora on Friday January 06, 2023 @06:14AM (#34273462)

That's not very helpful ... "Anyone can sue anyone for anything anytime."

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Re:Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong a... by mcv on Friday January 06, 2023 @02:03PM (#34279276)

The big question is: would they win? Nobody knows, because nothing about this has ever been tested in court as far as I know.

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Re:Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong a... by enkid on Friday January 06, 2023 @08:05AM (#34274183)

A company that depends on selling stuff compatible with DnD is going to go out of business very quickly if they can't put new content out.

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Re:Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong a... by Semaphor on Friday January 06, 2023 @03:00AM (#34272155)

Thank you, I should have probably clarified that I meant the canceling, not the terms ;)

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Re:Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong a... by taneq on Friday January 06, 2023 @03:11AM (#34272232)

Ohhhh I was wondering what the hell their beef could be with OpenGL 1.0.

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Re:Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong a... by lakomen on Friday January 06, 2023 @07:10AM (#34273827)

This sounds like fraud to me, intentional or not.

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Re:Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong a... by andreareina on Friday January 06, 2023 @07:43AM (#34274035)

No such thing as unintentional fraud.

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