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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnRTroy" data-source="post: 4310998" data-attributes="member: 2732">I dunno.  Gary said he never got royalties from D&D once he left, but Monte Cook said Gary was being paid something in his obituary, and Peter Atkinson might have done something for both Gary and Dave.  But I doubt it.  If I was gonna bet anything, I suspect there could be a change for one of these things.Protection against reverse-engineering.  There are people who might want to attempt to reverse-engineer 4e by building on the 3e SRD and making changes.  If a legal battle ensues, I believe that WoTC will claim that this version of D&D is not derived from any prior version of the game and thus the credit is no longer given to the original creators (or writers of 2nd and 3e rules).  Wizards really dislikes the OGL and seems to want to not ever let their newer property ever come under that umbrella, so I suspect they did this to help defend themselves, saying that the new D&D is a completely new work-for-hire creation by staff members.Protection from Copyright Termination:  Right now there's a big legal battle over Superman from it's original creators.  Because Copyright terms were extended in 1976, a provision of the law states that if you created something before transferring the copyright to a company, and the time the original copyright would have expired before the extension, you can make a claim to terminate the transfer and get the rights back.  Technically, Gary's heirs and Dave's heirs might be able to get the copyrights back to original D&D--and possibly derivative works.  This wouldn't happen for another 20-25 years.  But maybe distancing themselves from it could add protection.  Of course, I am guessing and I'm sure Gary signed several legal deals from the TSR days onward that might void any claims.As far as removing Greyhawk--I dunno, that campaign setting has been really cursed since Gary was outsted from TSR.  I know others have tried but I would like Greyhawk to be preserved in amber and not "reimagined" by anyone, especially for 4e.  It's his Gravestone (so to speak, pardon the Gord pun).</blockquote>

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