Is this allowed?

[borc killer]

Could a d20 company that has an established game (say.. Monte’s Arcana Unearthed because I know some about it) and make a PC game out of their own in house setting using the d20 stuff in the SRD? Or is there some kind of restriction about electronic media with the d20 stuff?

Borc Killer

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Though it would be intersting, I do think there's something in the SRD against doing that...I don't know the details though, and could be wrong.

 

[Ranger REG]

It's been talked about for some time.

If you wish to use the SRD to make a computer game, use only the OGL.

The trick is to keep those SRD stuff -- now translated into computer codes -- OGC for other computer programmers to use (they have as much right to use those as other writers using printed OGC).

 

[DaveStebbins]

Not just other programmers. The OGL says open content must be easily distinguishable from non-open content. This has usually been interpreted to mean that that OGC cannot be coded in, but must be read in from a separate (text) file.

Your best bet is to go to the Open Gaming Foundation website and use the listserves link to join the OGF-L mailing list. Before asking there, be sure to check the archives. If the archives are down (they often are) mention that fact when asking, because the discussion has been done many times in the past on that list.

http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/

edit - to add that the d20 license specifically prohibits interactive games, which is why the first advice is to use the OGL alone.

 

[borc killer]

Not just other programmers. The OGL says open content must be easily distinguishable from non-open content. This has usually been interpreted to mean that that OGC cannot be coded in, but must be read in from a separate (text) file.

Your best bet is to go to the Open Gaming Foundation website and use the listserves link to join the OGF-L mailing list. Before asking there, be sure to check the archives. If the archives are down (they often are) mention that fact when asking, because the discussion has been done many times in the past on that list.

http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/

edit - to add that the d20 license specifically prohibits interactive games, which is why the first advice is to use the OGL alone.

Great thanks guys!

 

[Pyrex]

"Easily Distinguishable" doesn't necessarily mean "Readable in plain-text".

If you build all of your OGC into a seperate .dll from the rest of your code (possibly allowing people to d/l the source from your website) I think you'd be ok.

 

[DaveStebbins]

"Easily Distinguishable" doesn't necessarily mean "Readable in plain-text".

Court decisions do not usually assume an expert user. The usual argument goes that a basic user would not be able to easily distinguish OGC unless it was in something like a text file. Perhaps some command that allows the OGC to be extracted from the code and displayed on screen would suffice.

I haven't been a direct part of the discussions, because I don't write software. However, the above impression seemed to be the general concensus (or as much of a concensus as you can get when lay people discuss points of law, and lawyers discuss points of programming).

 

[herald]

I think that the argument that if you made a print version of your OGL first and then made a electronic game from that you will have met the requirements.

For example Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed is already in print and has it's OGC designated. If the game only used that IMHO that would be safe.

 

[DMFTodd]

The OGL says that the included Open Gaming Material has to be "clearly identified". Wizards has said, that to them, this means "human readable". It hasn't gone to court so we don't know what a judge would say.

For whatever it is worth, there has been material released as OGL that is not "human readable" but that is "clearly identified". Someone created a program with OGL, made it an EXE, and then declared the whole EXE as OGL. Far as I know, no complaints were made.

I feel that you could write OGL material, but it an EXE/COM/DLL, declare that whole file as Open, and that would satisfy the license. So, yes, to the original posters question. That's just my opinion though, I could be wrong.

 

[DaveStebbins]

The problem with declaring an exe or dll to be OGC is that it may not be legal to declare some parts of the code open. Be very careful with any code you are reusing, there may be limits or prohibitions on opening it up.

Again, I'm not a programmer, but having heard these arguments before, they sound logical.