RPG Legalities: OGF/4eGSL/d20STLDiscussions about the Open Gaming Movement, the Open Gaming License, along with WotC's GSL. This is the new home of the OGF-L and d20-L listserver discussions.
The following text is from the Open Gaming Foundation website, which is the location from which these discussion lists have been moved:
The Open Gaming Foundation believes that a license must provide for two important features in order to be an Open Game license.
1. The license must allow game rules and materials that use game rules to be freely copied, modified and distributed.
2. The license must ensure that material distributed using the license cannot have those permissions restricted in the future.
The first requirement precludes an Open Gaming License from placing any limitation on the licensed content beyond those necessary to enforce the terms of the license itself. This prohibition includes a restriction against commercial distribution, a requirement for review or approval, the payment of a fee of any kind to a 3rd party, or any other term that would seek to limit the free use of the licensed material.
The second requirement means that the license must have a mechanism to ensure that the rights it grants cannot be taken away, either by the original contributor of the material, of the copyright holder of the license text itself, by an action taken on behalf of a 3rd party, or any other process.
The Open Gaming Foundation is aware of several licenses which it believes meet these requirements. The Foundation makes no representation or warranty as to the fitness or actual terms of any of these licenses. The following list of licenses is provided as a convenience and should not be taken as a formal endorsement of the terms of any of these licenses.
1. The license must allow game rules and materials that use game rules to be freely copied, modified and distributed.
Ahem, according to your own definition of an Open Game license, the OGL is not open, as it does not allow game rules to be "freely copied, modified and distributed": there are restrictions on using OGC in software:
Quote:
If you distribute Open Game Content You must clearly indicate which portions of the work that you are distributing are Open Content. This doesn't mean you can say all rules in my program are Open, the users need to be able to see all that Open Content. You can do this by putting Open Content in a format that is easy to understand.
- OGL Software FAQ
In other words, you are not free to distribute game rules as binary software.
In other words, you are not free to distribute game rules as binary software.
I don't see a problem with that. All you need to do is put the OGC parts of a game into a directory people can find (maybe "/game/ogc/") and then save them in a format that can be opened in a text editor. What is the disadvantage of not being able to hide OGC in a binary file format?
I don't see a problem with that. All you need to do is put the OGC parts of a game into a directory people can find (maybe "/game/ogc/") and then save them in a format that can be opened in a text editor. What is the disadvantage of not being able to hide OGC in a binary file format?
Among other things, non-binary code can cause performance issues, as code compiled as binaries is much faster. Besides, this restriction directly contradicts the "open" requirement that open content can be "freely copied, modified and distributed".
Also, isn't the above definition now redundant, given the GSL has many restrictions that contradict it?
Among other things, non-binary code can cause performance issues, as code compiled as binaries is much faster. Besides, this restriction directly contradicts the "open" requirement that open content can be "freely copied, modified and distributed".
The OGL is a roleplaying licence not an open source software licence. It wasn't built for people creating software from the SRD (or other OGC built on the SRD).
Creating data that RPG fans can't access is going against the spirit of the licence. It is in the interest of the roleplaying community for people to be able to easily get the OGC data out of a computer program. If that makes it slightly harder for the software developer then they could just write their own rules instead of using Open Game Content. Nobody says a software developer needs to use OGC or the SRD.
Basing something on the SRD would probably only be important to a software company if they want to attract D&D fans. In any case, if performance is desired, I would have though that you could zip up text data as the program boots up. Then you could have the OGC text files that the licence requires and make a temporary file that was as fast as you want.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rgladwell
Also, isn't the above definition now redundant, given the GSL has many restrictions that contradict it?
The creation of the GSL does not cancel the OGL. The OGL can not be revoked. It can be used forever.
If you sign the GSL you may not be able to use the OGL any more, but if you don't ever sign it you could write OGL software for your entire life. (You could even write software that is compatible with Pathfinder RPG.)
Among other things, non-binary code can cause performance issues, as code compiled as binaries is much faster. Besides, this restriction directly contradicts the "open" requirement that open content can be "freely copied, modified and distributed".
Also, isn't the above definition now redundant, given the GSL has many restrictions that contradict it?
The performance hit of non-binary code is minimal if person writing the interpreter has a clue. Long gone are the days of ram and processor speeds measured with kilo.
__________________ I turned myself into a monster, to fight against the monsters of the world.
http://www.nadaka.us/DiceBoxDB.asp
Check out Nadaka's Dice Box, an online die rolling program featuring a persistant searchable database.
http://www.nadaka.us/ModernNPC.asp
Check out Nadaka's Modern NPC generator, still under construction but it does generate NPCs up to 20th level.
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
