Black Company Magic System != OGC?

[whydirt]

I don't see how they thought they might suffer losses by opening that portion of the rules, I guess is what I'm getting at.

As was mentioned above, it may have been out of GR's hands. For example, I fairly certain I remember reading that their license with BCCS didn't include doing a .pdf release, which is why there isn't one.

 

[Old One]

As was mentioned above, it may have been out of GR's hands. For example, I fairly certain I remember reading that their license with BCCS didn't include doing a .pdf release, which is why there isn't one.

True. RJS over on the Green Ronin message boards made it clear that their licensing agreement for BCCS was very strict. One product...no .pdfs...no follow-on books...no enhancements aside from a couple minor web teaser/content .pdfs. I can only guess that their decision to keep it off the OGC shelf stems from the restrictive licensing issues.

That said, as both Heap mentioned above and Wulf indicated in another thread where this came up...keeping rule mechanics closed is very difficult. I have been following discussions on this pretty closely and that seems to be the general (non-lawyer) consensus.

~ OO

 

[Nifelhein]

As far as i know the OGL makes any derivative material OGC, the only way to exempt from this rule is by paying royalties to WotC, the owner of the intellectual property in this case.

that is how Warcraft, among others, has been exempt from the OGL and holds not a single open thing in its books.

And I am not a lawyer, yet, but surely i do not live in the US or have any knowledge of US specific laws.

Cheers,

Nif.

 

[drothgery]

Unless I'm mistaken, it's impossible to successfully copyright game RULES. Isn't that the secret magic mojo of OGC, that it was OGC anyway? Only the wording can be copyrighted, that only fiddlingly so. You could make a system that was exactly the same but used "Cast Magic Skill" in place of "Magic Use Skill" and "Apprentice, Journeyman, Mage, and Archmage" in place of "Student of Wizardry, 1st Magnitude, 2nd Magnitude, and 3rd Magnitude" and be fine to flow.

This is widely believed, but AFAIK (and I'm not a lawyer, or even a well-read layman), it has never been tested in court. And it seems to me that given rules on derivative works in other fields, a fairly good case could be made that mechanics are, in fact, copyrightable.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Perhaps, but I'd think the ogl would ruin that, especially for anything derivative of the wotc srd ... like the magic talent descriptions and mechanics of spell effects.

--fje

 

[rjs]

Ogc

Hey folks,

The exclusion of the Magic System in the BCCS is in error. However, using this chapter is tricky because much of it deals directly with the Black Company books. For those publishers interested in using the BCCS magic system, I invite them to contact us at Green Ronin directly. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Thanks!

 

[Nifelhein]

Thabnks for dropping by Robert, as always, the best companies around are also those open to the customers and fellow publishers.

Cheers,

Nif

 

[JoeGKushner]

As far as i know the OGL makes any derivative material OGC, the only way to exempt from this rule is by paying royalties to WotC, the owner of the intellectual property in this case.

that is how Warcraft, among others, has been exempt from the OGL and holds not a single open thing in its books.

And I am not a lawyer, yet, but surely i do not live in the US or have any knowledge of US specific laws.

Cheers,

Nif.

Not having the Warcraft book in front of me, I believe that only the first or 'core' book of the Warcraft is actually OGL free and that most of the other books are mostly OGL in terms of game mechancis.

 

[Nifelhein]

Not having the Warcraft book in front of me, I believe that only the first or 'core' book of the Warcraft is actually OGL free and that most of the other books are mostly OGL in terms of game mechancis.

That is something I don't really know, but the first one I am sure is closed cotnent, knowing about the others is a great thing though, could u confirm it to us?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

More specifically, the OG content is the part that can't be successfully challenged in court. But no, if a work is released as partially open content, it doesn't have to have (and it can't be construed as) purely open content. Since they released it as d20 STL, only 5% or so had to be open technically. To be specific, only those things designated as open are actually Open.

True-- but not if the designation is in error (as it seems rjs has acknowledged).

Anything derived from Open Content IS Open Content. Since the BCS magic rules use skill checks, spell effects, and descriptions from Open Content, it must also be open content.

You might be able to copyright the expression of the idea (as Monte, and many others, including myself now do), but not the mechanics themselves, because the mechanics are built on, derivative of, and thus themselves Open Content.

(Standard copyright rules do not apply where the Open Gaming License is in effect.)