So, what disappears on January 1st?

[Treebore]

Re copyright and p2p - publishers can no longer legally sell, give away, or otherwise distribute their d20-logoed materials, so they no longer have an economic interest in preventing their distribution free online. They may feel it infringes their Lockean property rights though. But I'd be very surprised if any objected now that the works are valueless to them. They can't officially permit it either though without getting in trouble with WotC!

Valueless? That has very interesting implications on copyright. You can only sue when provable damages have occurred. Or it violates a draconian GSL agreement thats been signed.

So Goodman can't distribute their 3E material, period.

 

[dm4hire]

Actually my understanding is that they just can't sell 3.x material related to anything published under the GSL. So Mongoose could keep selling Conan OGL, but if converted would have to stop selling all OGL versions once completed and made available. Although I know to be safe some publishers are not even messing with the GSL until the final document is released to make sure the clarification is solid.

Technically the free disemination of a d20 pdf could be allowed under the terms as long as the purchased product wasn't modified after 11:59pm 12/31/2008 as all products in stock by a store are allowed to be sold until stock is depleated. Since it is vertual there is no depletion of stock and the product would have been created before the expiration date as listed in the announcement. The announcement said they could not sell or publish any d20 material after the start of the year. Giving something away is actually not selling the product. Granted it is better to avoid the legal battle just to prove oneself right which is what WotC is expecting everyone to do.

Since GR came out with the 3rd Era logo I see a lot of companies converting over to that to continue sales anyway. Not sure what all conversion needs to be done other than changing the legal statement in the product and the logo.

 

[Treebore]

Actually my understanding is that they just can't sell 3.x material related to anything published under the GSL. So Mongoose could keep selling Conan OGL, but if converted would have to stop selling all OGL versions once completed and made available. Although I know to be safe some publishers are not even messing with the GSL until the final document is released to make sure the clarification is solid.

Technically the free disemination of a d20 pdf could be allowed under the terms as long as the purchased product wasn't modified after 11:59pm 12/31/2008 as all products in stock by a store are allowed to be sold until stock is depleated. Since it is vertual there is no depletion of stock and the product would have been created before the expiration date as listed in the announcement. The announcement said they could not sell or publish any d20 material after the start of the year. Giving something away is actually not selling the product. Granted it is better to avoid the legal battle just to prove oneself right which is what WotC is expecting everyone to do.

Since GR came out with the 3rd Era logo I see a lot of companies converting over to that to continue sales anyway. Not sure what all conversion needs to be done other than changing the legal statement in the product and the logo.

The GSL covers "lines", so in Goodmans case they converted their "DCC Line" over to 4E, so they cannot sell any of their 3E DCC line stuff. They can, however, still convert them over to C&C and sell them through that line. I hope so, anyways. I see some wording that could mean they can't do that either.

 

[dm4hire]

Correct, but what I was referring to is that if Mongoose wanted to convert LoneWolf over to GSL they could and still do Conan as OGL as they are not related lines. It seemed to me people were indicating that once a company goes GSL they can't do anything OGL, which isn't the case from what I've read. But as I imply it seems some companies currently are taking the all or nothing approach to be safe, either going strickly GSL or staying OGL.

In truth a company should only stay with the product in a given format if it is selling well for them. Mongoose and GR are having no problems selling their OGL products so I see no real reason to change them over. Hopefully WotC will loosen the reins a bit with the next revision of the GSL , allowing for crossover products between editions.

I believe part of the problem with 3PPs not going over to GSL is since there is such a drastic change between editions they risk the same backlash that WotC is seeing right now. Namely people not wanting to change over due to wanting to be able to keep using their existing products "as is" without having to buy all new material or spend time converting everything over.

 

[Angellis_ater]

I just need to ask - has there been any OFFICIAL revokation of the license? Does anyone have a link beyond a note in a forumpost by Scott Rouse about the entire thing?

 

[Psion]

Correct, but what I was referring to is that if Mongoose wanted to convert LoneWolf over to GSL they could and still do Conan as OGL as they are not related lines. It seemed to me people were indicating that once a company goes GSL they can't do anything OGL, which isn't the case from what I've read.

You are correct.

But as I imply it seems some companies currently are taking the all or nothing approach to be safe, either going strickly GSL or staying OGL.

Some probably are just using the scarcity as the chance to get people to buy those books they've been waiting to buy, and some probably simply don't want to go through the trouble of removing/covering the logo.

 

[DaveMage]

I just need to ask - has there been any OFFICIAL revokation of the license? Does anyone have a link beyond a note in a forumpost by Scott Rouse about the entire thing?

Nope.

 

[Angellis_ater]

Nope.

Kinda what I thought.

 

[Tetsubo]

Does it strike anyone as foolish that WotC all but ensured a ton of 3.X material would become available for cheap or nothing at the very time they were trying to convince people to play 4E? If I wanted to, I could now play D&D 3.5 for a decade without buying a new book.

Just another stellar example of Wizbro's failed marketing.

Seeing as 3.5 is the last edition of D&D, we can keep playing for eternity.

 

[Psion]

Hmmm.

Goodman's DCCs, WFF, and Guides are gone. Got what I want.

Highmoon's MonkeyGod presents gone. Got what I want.

Necromancer is mostly still there, but their Judges Guild D20 stuff is gone. And I forgot to nab the Wilderlands boxed set.

EDIT:
In other notes:
Crafty Games classic spycraft stuff has been re-uploaded sans logo.

Green Ronin has put titles back up with their "3rd Era" logo.