Parmandur
Book-Friend
@pemerton is actually a lawyer, and IIRC teaches philosophy in a Lwa School.What I was objecting to is the theory that CR only uses OGL materials and didn't use a beholder because of legal issues. They use many things that are not in the basic rules and they have used a beholder.
As far as legal obligations, CR does not charge people to view their content. Therefore I don't believe there is not any licensing issue because of the Fan Content Policy [1] [2]. Yes they sell merchandise, but it's not D&D copyrighted merchandise. The CR cartoon will obviously be a different issue, as is the Wildemount guide.
If you are a lawyer, or if you can point to any evidence at all, I will bow to legal expertise. Until then, it's not worth arguing about.
They probably haven't received pushback from WotC, but wouldn't they tried to publish an art book with their IP. So, for convenience to prevent needing to asl permission, they use less WotC IP when possible. Keeps thi to clean.