Fan-made material impossible until 2009?

[sunmaster]

Hello to all,

I read the information about the new OGL and the discussions about it on this forum.

There is one thing I don't understand:

If I want to write "free to use for all" material - for example a setting with adventures - for 4E _and_ publish it on the net, is it possible or have I to wait until 2009?

I am a fan and I don't want to have difficulties just because I am more than happy that a new edition comes and sit down and write something.


For every answer I thank in advance.

regards
sunmaster

 

[TwinBahamut]

While I certainly don't have the official answer, I doubt WotC would restrict free fan-material from being distributed. Fans talking to each other and sharing ideas and concepts is something that obviously helps the game in many ways. I think WotC want to encourage that (and I think intends to do so using the Gleemax site), not inhibit it.

I think the restriction will only apply to published books and other things that are being offered for sale.

 

[Xethreau]

I agree with TwinBahamut (Hi, BTW, I'm Wizardmon on the Gleemax forums!), I find it unlikely that WotC would prohibit free original material being traded between people over the internet. I think the selling-after-this-date restriction doesn't apply to us, mostly, because fans aren't selling their products, they are passing them out for free!

 

[Cadfan]

The OGL cannot take away rights you already have under general copyright law and general fair use. This is because the OGL is essentially a contract, and its a contract to which you are not a party.

That being said, I don't know if what you hope to do is fair use. If I were to write an adventure and wanted to release it using "fair use" to justify my ability to do so, I'd avoid including actual stat blocks or other charts of official material.

You can look up the rest of the standard for "fair use" online.

 

[HeinorNY]

I know as much as you guys, but I'm sure the days of TSR sending cease-and-desist letters to kids with character sheets on their web pages are gone and will never come back.

Don't worry, we'll be just fine.

 

[SteveC]

It isn't a problem at all: I've published many a resource under the "some guy on the Internet" license. Never had a problem with it.

The OGL has some very specific uses, and putting up fan materials is really not what it's about.

--Steve

 

[Khaalis]

The only "fan material" I think this will impact is the abundance of one-off fan published PDF's that we see now selling for a few dollars, as they are technically still being "sold". The other issue I see is with the use of "official" language and logos. I don't think you will be able to use the D&D Logo or the official brand association terminology which will likely be something like "this product is compatible with D&D4E".

 

[Numion]

No actually my golf buddys caddies namesakes godfathers mailman knows people at WotC, and said that the ENWorld 'Houserules' subforum will have to be closed from the release of 4E until january 2009 .

 

[glass]

I read the information about the new OGL and the discussions about it on this forum.

There is one thing I don't understand:

If I want to write "free to use for all" material - for example a setting with adventures - for 4E _and_ publish it on the net, is it possible or have I to wait until 2009?

I am a fan and I don't want to have difficulties just because I am more than happy that a new edition comes and sit down and write something.

If you want to use the OGL, yes you have to wait. OTOH, if you just want to do it under fair use (like you would have done before 3e, and like pretty much every post in the House Rules forum still does), then you are good to go, as I understand it.

IANAL.


glass.

 

[trancejeremy]

It isn't a problem at all: I've published many a resource under the "some guy on the Internet" license. Never had a problem with it.

The OGL has some very specific uses, and putting up fan materials is really not what it's about.

Well, see the thing is, back in the TSR days, they considered the "some guy on the Internet" license to be copyright infringement. Fan material was severely restricted to only a few acceptable places. Quite a few people were hit with C&D letters.

While primarily focused on publishing, the OGL was also supposed to take the fear of that happening again away.