AEG and OGL

[enrious]

Ok, so I was looking in my copy of AEG's Magic when I noticed that the section 15 isn't updated with information for Magic.

It's my understanding that this is a fundamental requirement of the OGL; you must update the section 15 with your product. Am I wrong about this?

I looked through the entire line of "one word" sourcebooks and none of them updated the section 15, although Mercenaries and Gods listed some of the earlier books, they also failed to update the section 15.

Is there something I'm missing? When a publisher releases a product, e.g. Product X, doesn't the Section 15 of the OGL in Product X need to be updated with Product X's information?

And if so, why hasn't AEG been doing this in their "one word" sourcebooks?

 

[Dismas]

Yes they should be updating their section 15. If anyone uses the Open content from the "One Word" books then AEG won't get any credit.

I gave up a long time ago trying to explain to AEG about section 15.

 

[enrious]

It seems odd to me, because it's one of the most basic elements of the OGL.

Section 6 says, "...You must add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder's name to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you Distribute."

That would seem fairly self-evident to me. I wonder why AEG doesn't do it.

 

[dpmcalister]

I don't think it's AEG as a whole doing this.

I've just checked my Spycraft and Shadowforce Archer books and they all have the correct annotations for Section 15.

 

[enrious]

I dropped by my FLGS today and noted that Spycraft's section 15 only mentioned the OGL, but didn't include information on the SRD or Spycraft.

Ditto for the Rokugan stuff. Weird. Do they have some sort of licensing agreement for them that allows them not to update the section 15?

(btw, I'd always seen that quote attributed to Voltaire, not Oliver Wendell Holmes. I believe it was in Voltaire's In Freedom.)

 

[Dismas]

Originally posted by dpmcalister
I don't think it's AEG as a whole doing this.

I've just checked my Spycraft and Shadowforce Archer books and they all have the correct annotations for Section 15.

I have just checked by copy of spycraft the section 15 is wrong.

It reads:
15: COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Open Game License v1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

It Should Read (IANAL):
15: COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Open Game License v1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
System Rules Document Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
Spycraft Copyright 2002, Alderac Entertainment Group.

They have put all of their copyright info the section marked 'The Open Gaming Content'. Section 6 states:

6.Notice of License Copyright: You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing, and you must add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder's name to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you Distribute.

Legally I could take all of the open content in Spycraft and put it into a new product and all I would have to quote is the Section 15. I can ignore the request to include the copyright notice "Spycraft Copyright 2002, Alderac Entertainment Group." because I am (as are AEG) bound by the terms of the OGL and the OGL states in section 2 :

No other terms or conditions may be applied to any Open Game Content distributed using this License

.

The Spycraft Lite PDF is better. They have the Section 15 updated, but it still not correct. They include the copyright section from the Star Wars RPG, a product that contains NO open gaming content. (Remember the VP/WP system is covered under a special license from WoTC). So Basically AEG are saying that Star Wars RPG is open content.

<RANT>
The Open Gaming License is NOT rocket science. It has also been around now for 2 approx. years. Their is NO excuse for products released in 2002 to have an incorrect Section 15.
</RANT>

 

[enrious]

That was my understanding as well.

 

[Ranger REG]

So what do you want AEG to do? Recall all first printing of Spycraft and replace with a correct version of the OGL?

Granted, they should have known better, whoever is in charge of their legal work. They may correct it when there is a need for a second printing. Anyhoo, it's up to Wizards to inform AEG of their incorrect use of the OGL.

 

[The Sigil]

<RANT>
The Open Gaming License is NOT rocket science. It has also been around now for 2 approx. years. Their [sic] is NO excuse for products released in 2002 to have an incorrect Section 15.
</RANT>

*Applauds loudly*

Exactly. The only possible reason to have an incorrect S15 is that you were updating your S15 off an older publication of a book that got its S15 wrong, and you copied their error.

Now, if we could just get companies to CLEARLY delineate their Open Game Content (my "6-year-old with a highlighter" rule), we might actually get somewhere.

EDIT: Removed Thread-hijacking rant...

--The Sigil

 

[enrious]

So what do you want AEG to do? Recall all first printing of Spycraft and replace with a correct version of the OGL?

Granted, they should have known better, whoever is in charge of their legal work. They may correct it when there is a need for a second printing. Anyhoo, it's up to Wizards to inform AEG of their incorrect use of the OGL.

I honestly don't care one whit what they do or don't do with their products.

It just seems odd to me that a large publisher like AEG can't get it right when so many of the smaller publishers do. Especially given that AEG's been putting out OGL products since early 2001 (If memory serves).

I could understand it in their first couple of products, but Magic is at least their 13th product.