Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="kenmarable" data-source="post: 4150811" data-attributes="member: 40359">Also, if it appears to be crossing the line of treading into WotC product identity, they could slam you for violating the OGL itself, which has nothing to do whatsoever with copyright infringement (so all of the &quot;game mechanics and math can't be copywritten&quot; claims are irrelevant). The OGL has built into it the &quot;safe harbor&quot; concept of playing nice with other people's closed content, regardless of any copyright claims. So trying to publish a pseudo-4e ruleset under the OGL could be construed as a license violation with WotC (since every time you publish under the OGL, you are entering into a legally enforceable license with WotC). That's a court case I wouldn't bet on them losing. So, if I were... uh... brave enough to try and create pseudo-4e products, and especially a 4e clone SRD, I would rely on the &quot;game mechanics aren't copyrightable&quot; defense and not touch the OGL at all (plus, like I said above, I'd incorporate so I wouldn't lose my house). But that's just me, and I think it's just begging for a lawsuit, not to mention it can be seen as &quot;peeing in the pool&quot; of open gaming, which won't make you any friends in the industry.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kenmarable, post: 4150811, member: 40359"] Also, if it appears to be crossing the line of treading into WotC product identity, they could slam you for violating the OGL itself, which has nothing to do whatsoever with copyright infringement (so all of the "game mechanics and math can't be copywritten" claims are irrelevant). The OGL has built into it the "safe harbor" concept of playing nice with other people's closed content, regardless of any copyright claims. So trying to publish a pseudo-4e ruleset under the OGL could be construed as a license violation with WotC (since every time you publish under the OGL, you are entering into a legally enforceable license with WotC). That's a court case I wouldn't bet on them losing. So, if I were... uh... [i]brave[/i] enough to try and create pseudo-4e products, and especially a 4e clone SRD, I would rely on the "game mechanics aren't copyrightable" defense and not touch the OGL at all (plus, like I said above, I'd incorporate so I wouldn't lose my house). But that's just me, and I think it's just begging for a lawsuit, not to mention it can be seen as "peeing in the pool" of open gaming, which won't make you any friends in the industry. [/QUOTE]

Verification