I suspect that the primary intent of the
GSL with regards to what they want it to prevent would be roughly as follows:
1) No online and free versions of the rules in their entirety.
- This is in part to protect sales of the core books.
- Wizards wants to sell searchable digital content of this sort.
2) No 3rd party taking any
WotC older 3rd edition stuff and converting it to 4th
- I expect that Wizards wants to have the option of revisiting successful 3rd Ed products.
3) No wholesale redefinition of rules
- This is to prevent a break in compatibility, and prevent people trying to cram non D&D stuff into D&D.
4) A reasonable amount of brand protection
- This is just to prevent the PR nightmare of say, thinly disguised racist propaganda from being marketed under the D&D / D20 name.
It sounds to me like they are still working on item 3.
As an aside, I am not surprised much of the digital initiative slipped. The online game table is at least as difficult to implement as a full on computer game. They want a 3d graphic interface with user customizable characters, realtime voice communications, and a means to access a rules database, as well as the dice rolling. On top of that they also need that database to be usable by players who just want to generate and store characters for use in non digital games. Wizards / Hasbro is not a game developer, and it would not surprise me if the people that were hired to implement it were hired on the cheap.
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