Withdrawing material from the OGL?

Kafen · 29th October 2009, 01:36 AM

So, I'm set to release an actual print product locally. The product being a short adventure theme set around a classic haunted house story. The market is basically local gamers at the local gamer tournies. It's really a "fun" thing for my area gamers.

Anywho, I have the first adventure done. I am setting up the theme for the second adventure which involves ocean ships. And, I'm using the OGC stats from a ship system. I ask the publisher if they mind me posting the OGC to a public archive as a matter of course. I figure that people can benefit from my work in actually making an OGC source.

In the past and generally speaking, the most strict answer to such things is usually... "Make sure it is OGC only, we would love to see a copy prior to print." ...when I ask about it.

However, I get this back from the publisher.

My Question

Quote:

Specifically, the ######. I converted the large portion of the OGC material to text format for my own usage. I thought about posting it to the Grand OGL Wiki. Would you object?

Reply

Quote:

You may not post copyrighted ### material online. We are in the process of converting our ####### line to PDF for sale on DriveThruRPG.com.

So...

Honestly, it is tempting to release the OGC just to prove a point. However, I wonder if this is something to watch as the OGL ages.

Morally, I should not use the content. Technically, it irks me that people using the OGL are trying to close OGC. It goes against the very spirit of the open source drive in the gaming community.

Anywho, my question... Can publishers withdraw content from the scope of the OGL now that WOTC has abandoned the OGL?

**Morrus** · 29th October 2009, 02:10 AM

They cannot withdraw OGC. The OGL is an irrevocable license.

Be careful, though - make sure anything you use IS OGC. Very carefully read the OGC declaration in the original product so you know what is and what is not OGC.

Mark · 29th October 2009, 07:46 AM

If you spin it by Mark Gedak before it goes on The Grand OGC Wiki, I'm sure it can be vetted for OGC-only material. It appears what the publisher was saying wasn't to not post OGC but just to emphasize what they were doing, the two things not being incompatible.

pawsplay · 29th October 2009, 09:00 AM

It occurs to me to wonder if the publisher understands that OGC is copyrighted and the OGL is irrevocable.

Kafen · 29th October 2009, 09:24 AM

Yup yup, careful is the the key word of the day.

Both the publisher and email sender should know the nature of the OGC, but... Yeah, it's possible they think they can take it back. The book itself is actually made to be extremely OGL friendly with clear usage and OGC labeling.

I can post the name of the book and email author if the En World staff think it will help. I do not want to do the whole flame thing, though.

Mark, yeah - I wish the email was a bit more detailed in response. That's not helping matters very much.

Angellis_ater · 29th October 2009, 01:34 PM

Please do post the book atleast so that we can look into the OGL declaration. Also note that the email writer might be pretty general in his reponse (ie - don't post what we copyrighted) rather than meaning (we are trying to revoke the OGL and make it copyrighted).

Man-thing · 29th October 2009, 02:15 PM

Sorry. I'm a little late to the conversation. Just to be clear.

- The Grand OGL Wiki only posts Open Game Content to its site.
- The Grand OGL Wiki works with publishers to add content to the site. We talk to them and get permission to do so (even though it is not required under the OGL). We do not work in a way that will be harmful to publisher.

- Mark Gedak
DM Sketchpad/Grand OGL Wiki

Kafen · 29th October 2009, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angellis_ater

Please do post the book atleast so that we can look into the OGL declaration. Also note that the email writer might be pretty general in his reponse (ie - don't post what we copyrighted) rather than meaning (we are trying to revoke the OGL and make it copyrighted).

Message:

Quote:

Specifically, the Seafarer''s Handbook. I converted the large portion of the OGC material to text format for my own usage. I thought about posting it to the Grand OGL Wiki. Would you object?

The book gives pretty detailed usage at the start of the books and full details at the start of each section containing OGC. I manually entered the section on ships stats and combat. That's the only section in question for myself.

Man-thing, yeah - that's why I like to inform the publisher if I do use their material. It just rankles me when a company enters into an open source community and then tries to withdraw material after exploiting the work of others. Open source movements suffer because of such behavior. If that said company chooses to not help the community, the community should know about it.

pawsplay · 29th October 2009, 05:07 PM

If you want to proceed, I think the traditional form is, "I am posting X OGC from X book. Would you like to be credited or not? Under the OGL I cannot credit you without your permission apart from the mandatory Copyright declaration."

Angellis_ater · 29th October 2009, 07:00 PM

Using OGC is what the OGL is there for - to allow us to use eachothers material. I agree with pawsplay, ask if they want to be credited and be done with it.

Kafen · 29th October 2009, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angellis_ater

Using OGC is what the OGL is there for - to allow us to use eachothers material. I agree with pawsplay, ask if they want to be credited and be done with it.

Agreed - I'll just go ahead and send the traditional bit as an update and post the OGC to my own site as a bonus. I'd love to see it on the Wiki, but that's a fight I'm not really willing to start.