Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong about the OGL and SRD. Clearing up confusion.

[Greg Benage]

It was based on his inside knowledge of Paizo. He stated outright the best chance the community has is Paizo fighting it and that there is a good chance they will, but did caution there is also a small chance they just sell the company to WotC to avoid the fight.

He has also said that there are multiple third parties in the background talking with lawyers and getting prepared.

And what sources is he citing?

I'm sorry, I'm probably just old, but these guys speculating and rumormongering on YouTube while that "SuperChat" money is dinging every few seconds...I don't trust any of it and never will.

 

[Xyxox]

BOOM! It's hitting Mainstream media:

MSN

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Gut instinct. It already went out attached to contracts to convince third parties to sign the sweetheart deal. If even one of those contracts has been exercised, they MUST release it, it all comes down to when and how.

IANAL of course but must they?

The contract received was a draft. Sure a late draft they seem to have been instructed was "basically final", but not actually final. Presumably they'd have final one to e-sign between the 4th and 13th.

If someone signed a special agreement on the basis of the "Full Evil" OGL 1.1, I suspect it would be acceptable to both them and WotC to dissolve that contract if WotC wanted to change the OGL 1.1.

 

[Xyxox]

And what sources is he citing?

I'm sorry, I'm probably just old, but these guys speculating and rumormongering on YouTube while that "SuperChat" money is dinging every few seconds...I don't trust any of it and never will.

He's not speculating. Teh community of third party producers is small and everybody knows everybody else. People working for him wrote Pathfinder 2E. He knows the owner of Paizo. He's not revealing precisely where information came from, but he and people he knows have contact with everybody in the business who is anybody.

 

[Greg Benage]

He's not speculating. Teh community of third party producers is small and everybody knows everybody else. People working for him wrote Pathfinder 2E. He knows the owner of Paizo. He's not revealing precisely where information came from, but he and people he knows have contact with everybody in the business who is anybody.

Sounds like he'd be a great source for a real journalist, but he's not a journalist. He is raking in that SuperChat money, though.

 

[Xyxox]

IANAL of course but must they?

The contract received was a draft. Sure a late draft they seem to have been instructed was "basically final", but not actually final. Presumably they'd have final one to e-sign between the 4th and 13th.

If someone signed a special agreement on the basis of the "Full Evil" OGL 1.1, I suspect it would be acceptable to both them and WotC to dissolve that contract if WotC wanted to change the OGL 1.1.

It was not a draft, it was an actual contract they wanted signed onto. If somebody signed their contract and the OGL 1.1 is not released as that was included to induce the signature, then WotC has engaged in fraud to get a signature on a contract. That's why they must release it or they face not just civil consequenses from the signor, they face criminal consequences for committing fraud.

 

[Xyxox]

Sounds like he'd be a great source for a real journalist, but he's not a journalist. He is raking in that SuperChat money, though.

He owns and operates Roll For Combat Battlezoo Online Shop

He was not considered big enough to be offered one of these contracts so unlike all the big 3pp, he is not under NDA.

 

[kenada]

the stream I'm watching on Youtube right now

Based on your subsequent comments, it sounds like (informed) speculation. I’d really like to see something official, especially since there is apparently a possibility they sell out.

 

[Greg Benage]

He owns and operates Roll For Combat Battlezoo Online Shop

Never heard of it. Listen, man, I know you're into it and everything, and that's cool. The guy might be spittin' straight truth (trying to sound young and hip, here). But to my ears, what you're saying is one step away from "Q isn't speculating, he's dialed in, he's on the inside, he knows everyone who's worth knowing" yada yada yada.

ETA: If he isn't just speculating and his contacts are where you say there are, Paizo needs to tell him to STFU.

 

[pemerton]

why wizards would go trough the hoops of calling the new licence an ogl, rather than just making a new lisence outright?

There's no real difference between these two things.

A reason for calling it OGL is rhetoric, as you note. Another is that (at least at a guess) it will be quasi-open, in that it will still create an ecosystem of Licensed Content, but subject to the royalties regime WotC have set out.

Or where could whoever actually writing the nonsensical "no longer an authorized" get the highly inflammatory ambigous, uncommon and poorly matching word "authorised" for describing what you as a lawyer managed to describe in much better and non-indlamatory terms.

On the other hand, this is something I could easily belief is just a communication snafu - whoever prepared the summary information may not have appreciated that the concept of "authorisation" would take on the life of its own that it seems to have.