GSL & SRD -- Comments, Questions, and Hopes

[Knightfall]

No I didn't
The GSL states you will no longer publish the GSL material using the OGL.
The GSL states that this clause survives termination of the GSL.
The OGL requires that you have the right to publish material using the OGL.
If you publish the former GSL material with the OGL you are doing so without authority.
That is a violation of the terms of S.5 of the OGL. According to S.13 of the OGL, you 30 days after notification of the violation to "cure" it. If you fail to remove the product, the OGL terminates.
Termination of the OGL means never using the OGL again for any and all products.

Geez, did the lawyers get the devils of Baator to help them write this crap. That's legality that would make a pit fiend grin.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

Read 6.3.

And no, they cannot stop you from going to a free system. They can terminate your license, preventing you from ever having a licensed product again, but they will not claim that your XXXX game must forever be tied to D&D from that point on. There would be reason for such a language.

 

[jmucchiello]

Well, they CAN stop you from using the OGL. This isn't just D&D, but Runequest, Traveller, FUDGE, ACTION!, Spirit Of The Century, and probably others. You must basically then 'role your own' system (or, I guess, license BRP or Savage Worlds, to name two non-OGL systems with easy license terms).

That's not 100% true. They can only stop you from any OGL derivative of the 3.x SRDs where you become a licensee with WotC. So that means no True20 but I don't think Fudge or Action! include the WotC OGC and so WotC is not a licensor of that OGC.

 

[triplehex]

The question you have to ask is: how much do you trust Wizards to keep the GSL around? Because once it is gone, that product you made likely cant ever be published again. Why? Because if you use the GSL you can NEVER (even after the GSL is terminated) make an OGL version of that product.

Clark, please give us an OGL Tegel Manor. Don't let the manor get locked up forever with the GSL key!!

 

[Lizard]

That's not 100% true. They can only stop you from any OGL derivative of the 3.x SRDs where you become a licensee with WotC. So that means no True20 but I don't think Fudge or Action! include the WotC OGC and so WotC is not a licensor of that OGC.

"6.2 No Backward Conversion. Licensee acknowledges and agrees that it will not publish any product pursuant to the OGL that features the same or similar title, product line trademark, or contents of a Licensed Product."

They did not say "May not use the D20 SRD". They said "any product pursuant to the OGL". I will assume that the multitude of lawyers who wrote the GSL knows and understands that the OGL isn't a synonym for the "D20 SRD" -- if they don't, they deserve to be fired. Here is how I read this, in total:

I publish a new product under the GSL.
Eventually, WOTC terminates the GSL.
I cannot convert that product to the OGL, which means I'm locked out from a very nice set of tested and developed systems, including the one most likely to be a semi-easy conversion, D20. I can create my own system or license a non-OGL system, of course.

 

[2WS-Steve]

I publish a new product under the GSL.
Eventually, WOTC terminates the GSL.
I cannot convert that product to the OGL, which means I'm locked out from a very nice set of tested and developed systems, including the one most likely to be a semi-easy conversion, D20. I can create my own system or license a non-OGL system, of course.

As another example -- my little PDF, Skill Focus: Talking, which presents some ideas for merging skill use into a roleplaying encounter, is something that I've been wanting to convert to a variety of game systems (e.g. Runequest, Traveler, etc) but I couldn't do that if I updated it to the GSL.

This is likewise true for other rules-expansion supplements like Hot Pursuit, which are also well-suited to being used in a variety of game systems.

 

[jmucchiello]

They did not say "May not use the D20 SRD". They said "any product pursuant to the OGL".

You're right. I was narrowly looking through my own Machiavellian glasses as related to my talk with BryonD.

 

[Yair]

jmucchiello: That's.... a devious trick. Kudos to those lawyers. :-/

 

[Center-of-All]

Hmmmm, seems to me your best (perhaps only choice) is to jump in with the GSL, and use the smaller competitive pool to build your own reputation. From there, you either keep 'converting' to successive liscences as WotC continues to put out editions, or (if they terminate the liscence mid-edition or don't have one for an edition) convert Amethyst to a new system published under Creative Commons. With luck, you'll have made enough of a name for yourself to be able to survive on your own. It's risky, but it looks like it may be your best bet for survival.

 

[Greylock]

Clark, please give us an OGL Tegel Manor. Don't let the manor get locked up forever with the GSL key!!

Huzzah!