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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8896883" data-attributes="member: 42582">Again, it's not my place to offer you advice. But I think there is more to be said about the general situation you describe.Suppose, for instance, that X, a 3PP, is confident that there is work that X could republish under ORC provided that X had the agreement of OGC Contributor Y, where Y <> WotC. In that case, X and Y are no better off under ORC than just continuing with that work under the OGL (subject to a possible caveat I will pick up below). Ex hypothesi neither is vulnerable to litigation from WotC.Conversely, suppose that if X were to republish their work they would be vulnerable to litigation from WotC, in the sense that X's work infringes WotC's copyright. Sticking to the OGL gives X a contractual defence to that claim (as discussed in various other threads that I know you have read). Changing to ORC leaves X without a contractual defence and needing to defend a claim of copyright infringement, which is likely to be more complex, more uncertain and hence more expensive.So under either alternative it's not clear to me why X would want to republish their work under ORC.Now here's the caveat: WotC asserts copyright in the text of the OGL itself; and if X and Y have entered a licence agreement in the terms of the OGL, then each has promised the other to reproduce the text of the OGL on a systematic basis. There is a risk in doing that of infringing WotC's copyright in that text.But there may well be arguments that use of the text is permitted, either expressly or by clear implication. (And again I think you've read my analysis of this in other threads.) So X and Y might want to seek advice on this particular issue, before they make the rather expensive and risky decision to move to ORC and republish their works under that new licence.</blockquote>

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