Section 6.1 is interesting. Am I understanding this correctly?
Publishers are free to convert OGL material to GSL material.
This was expected.
Once they convert a product, or a product line, from OGL to GSL, they can sell old physical stock, but must cease sales of non-physical stock (electronic I presume) and must prevent third party affiliates from selling old product.
Some of this was certainly expected. It looks like it also prevents spin off companies from selling the old OGL products as well.
OGL products, from the same company, that are not converted (or part of a converted product line), can still be sold.
So this isn't a whole cloth conversion clause for a given company. Any given company can convert some products and keep selling some unconverted products.
And this entire section will survive termination of the agreement.
This, I think, is one of the more thought provoking clauses. If a publisher converts a product line from OGL to GSL, and then the agreement is terminated - for whatever reason - then section 6.1 will still be in effect. So the publisher could not then revert a GSL converted product line back to the OGL.
This section may add fuel to the conspiracy theories. But this section may also be one that holds some third party publishers back. If there is a successful brand that the publisher has already built, will they want to tie that brand into 4E? Because once they do, they can't fall back to the strength of that brand if the agreement is terminated for any reason.
A lot has been said about the strength of tying into the D&D product line. Publishers might want to consider new brands to do that with if they are hedging their bets.
I also expect that some publishers will hold off for a couple of days, in the very least, before really commenting. They will want to consider carefully how they will proceed.
Still, the agreement looks pretty standard in a lot of ways. Well, as standard as you can expect for something pretty singular in a niche market.
But there are a couple of points that I think should give any publisher some serious food for thought before signing on. Yes, before agreeing to any license, you should put some serious thought into it. I know! But just think what this would have meant if similar language had been in the OGL. We probably wouldn't have seen companies like AEG flirt with the idea of using d20 to model Seven Seas (via Swashbuckling Adventures) if they couldn't fall back to their original game to begin with. Now that we have successful OGL brands, maybe we will see those converted, or maybe the OGL brands will continue forward and new brands from successful companies will be created for the GSL.
It should be interesting to see what products are announced in the next several months.