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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Luke" data-source="post: 1112685" data-attributes="member: 602">Karianna made a statement about "datasets only have right to be in PCGEN", which seems very odd, and I queried her on it. No big deal.But how a user uses the datasets is the issue. What you're talking about is forcing forcing users to use the data in a particular way (ie via PCGen).If CMP produce a dataset and charge me for it, then thats fine, and there are no licensing issues.IF CMP take it a step further, and encrypt it so that only PCGen can use the dataset, then its going further than it needs to - for reasons that have nothing to do with licensing.In fact, PCGen is one of the most large and active open source projects housed on SourceForge. Its all built around great open source concepts, which make it particularly strange that CMP would introduce and support a concept being the only app to work with a secret and proprietory data format.There is a very distinct parallel here (intentional or not) with what Microsoft tried to do with Java. They tried to modify Java so that there was a "Microsoft flavour" to it, which would mean that certain applications would only work with Microsoft technology (and eventually Microsoft would dominate and "own" Java). Sun saw through, fought it tooth and nail, and eventually won.I'm not trying to inflame you. I'm simply surprised at the intentions, and trying to get them clarified and explained.The point is that the hard work and the effort and the right-to-use  royalty for a WOTC dataset isn't paid for by using the dataset in PCGen. Its paid for by paying for the dataset.Making a dataset PCGen-only doesn't help enforce licensing in any way, since anybody can download and use a copy of PCGen. All it does is to limit the usefulness of the datasets, reduce the potential market for CMP sales, and try to enforce a PCGen monopoly for WOTC datasets.Look at it another way:Lets say CMP were actually producing PDF files of WOTC IP for sale. Ordinarily that would mean that anybody can pay for their PDF and use their favourite PDF viewer. This is how the RPG PDF industry works.Except that you then encrypt the PDF so that people can only use your own special PCgenPDFviewer to make it work. Now, although the PCgenPDFviewer is freely available to anyone, perhaps some people find it slow, buggy, and just hard plain to use.I'm a customer, and I've paid my money for the PDF. Why should I have to use the PCgenPDFviewer, if I'd prefer something else????The open source team producing PCgenPDFviewer may be just as mystified at the situation saying "We've got no idea why we're supporting and encouraging an closed proprietory format - we actually believe in open source ideals!".If CMP have created a business in publishing WOTC IP, then doesn't it make sense to maximise the marketing potential to both CMP and WotC, as well as provide the product to the wider RPG community?I can tell you that whilst PCGen is a fantastic effort, there is a *definite* segment of the RPG community that just don't want to use PCGen (for whatever reason). Why would you try and force those people to either use the *free* PCGen, or abandon using certain WotC datasets?Why would you deliberately encrypt what they pay for, to make it useless to them by limiting it to whatever PCGen does?See what I mean? I just find the logic behind it all fairly hard to follow.There may well be good reasons, and I'd be pleased to hear them.Regards,</blockquote>

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