Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Publishing Business & Licensing
Can WotC be forgiven?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Matt Thomason" data-source="post: 8896975" data-attributes="member: 6777331"><p>Hmm. </p><p></p><p>Lets say in this case I am Z. I have a work that is derivative of X,Y, <em>and</em> W, licensed under all three via the OGL. I have a couple of paragraphs lifted directly from W's SRD, a class from a book by X, and a spell from a PDF by Y.</p><p></p><p>Now, I am assuming in this case I have three seperate OGL licencing arrangements here with three seperate originators for three original works (in addition to all the works they may have referenced in those works).</p><p></p><p>I am now concerned that while X and Y are happy with me, W may try and throw their considerable weight at me for the use of their copyrighted SRD material, of which my, X, and Y's work is all derivative.</p><p></p><p>I feel more confident in this instance deciding that from now on, I'm going to work with an SRD by another company (P) altogether, preferably under a license which is owned by a neutral party to reduce the risk of P attempting to unilaterally change the terms. I will no longer use material from X or Y, unless they release something under this new license, and wish to make no further business relationships with W at all because I no longer trust them to follow the terms of our previous agreement and would prefer to avoid it ever becoming a legal issue.</p><p></p><p>My move to ORC in this case is to avoid both W's copyrighted license text <em>and</em> their SRD in future. I no longer wish anything in this new work to be derivative of W's. There's a pretty good chance that I will look for P to be a company that has an SRD that has no historical connection whatsoever to W's work, although I might investigate the possibility that P's SRD does have some historical connections but nothing copyrightable. Admittedly I feel more comfortable with the former, but if P is confident enough to go to court to defend it, I may consider the latter.</p><p></p><p>EDIT: Further to this is that I now consider W to be potentially hostile to my use of the license we agreed to. I do not want to fight this in court, and am far more comfortable working in relationships with companies that <em>want me</em> to be in that relationship with me as opposed to one that appears to be making moves to push me out or a relationship it regrets making. If W doesn't want me on board, no matter what the legal status, that's going to be very uncomfortable from now on with them potentially watching for the slightest reason to push me away. No thanks, not willing to work like that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Matt Thomason, post: 8896975, member: 6777331"] Hmm. Lets say in this case I am Z. I have a work that is derivative of X,Y, [I]and[/I] W, licensed under all three via the OGL. I have a couple of paragraphs lifted directly from W's SRD, a class from a book by X, and a spell from a PDF by Y. Now, I am assuming in this case I have three seperate OGL licencing arrangements here with three seperate originators for three original works (in addition to all the works they may have referenced in those works). I am now concerned that while X and Y are happy with me, W may try and throw their considerable weight at me for the use of their copyrighted SRD material, of which my, X, and Y's work is all derivative. I feel more confident in this instance deciding that from now on, I'm going to work with an SRD by another company (P) altogether, preferably under a license which is owned by a neutral party to reduce the risk of P attempting to unilaterally change the terms. I will no longer use material from X or Y, unless they release something under this new license, and wish to make no further business relationships with W at all because I no longer trust them to follow the terms of our previous agreement and would prefer to avoid it ever becoming a legal issue. My move to ORC in this case is to avoid both W's copyrighted license text [I]and[/I] their SRD in future. I no longer wish anything in this new work to be derivative of W's. There's a pretty good chance that I will look for P to be a company that has an SRD that has no historical connection whatsoever to W's work, although I might investigate the possibility that P's SRD does have some historical connections but nothing copyrightable. Admittedly I feel more comfortable with the former, but if P is confident enough to go to court to defend it, I may consider the latter. EDIT: Further to this is that I now consider W to be potentially hostile to my use of the license we agreed to. I do not want to fight this in court, and am far more comfortable working in relationships with companies that [I]want me[/I] to be in that relationship with me as opposed to one that appears to be making moves to push me out or a relationship it regrets making. If W doesn't want me on board, no matter what the legal status, that's going to be very uncomfortable from now on with them potentially watching for the slightest reason to push me away. No thanks, not willing to work like that. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Publishing Business & Licensing
Can WotC be forgiven?
Top