Personally, trying to avoid "copy & paste publishing," while an admirable goal on the surface, seems to be more trouble than it's worth.
I mean, where's the competition, here? There were a few 3e products that did the copy-and-paste thing extensively, but they either did very new things as well (like Arcana Unearthed), or were mere format shifts (the Pocket SRD), both of which weren't products anyone at Wizards seemed to have much of an interest in making. They filled a void, and I'd be more than a little surprised to hear the people who bought those products not already owning a PHB/DMG/MM or at least using the online SRD extensively.
I dunno. I'm sure WotC has better information than me, so perhaps I'm just skeptical. It seems to me that a lot of hassle over what, exactly, constitutes "redefinition," is something no one really has to go through, unless AU or the Pocket SRD was some huge looming threat during 3e that I was totally unaware of.
Then again, maybe this is designed to protect the online side of the business...so that if someone could copy/paste, someone could put the text of the books online, for free, with rules, and this would eat into the appeal for things like the D&D Compendium (even moreso if the GSL allows for future products to be used). So it's less about the threat that occurred in the past, and more about ensuring that WotC is the only place you can get this information...
...hm...that raises my personal "Corporate Feudalism" gag reflex, and it disappoints me, but I grudgingly grant that it's not unreasonable. Just sort of against the philosophy of the SRD/OGL, which is sad.
Anyway, good to hear that progress is being made, reagardless of what it pans out to be.
