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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tav_Behemoth" data-source="post: 1569487" data-attributes="member: 18017">As I've suggested at the Open Gaming Foundation listserv, Ryan, one of the factors that prevents the OGL from achieving 100% efficiency in spreading good ideas is that Section 7 of the license makes it difficult to cite sources. IMHO, this creates enough friction to cause a number of the problems people have raised in this thread.Academic cultures have been developing systems for the transmission and refinement of good ideas for centuries. The OGL is a brilliant step towards making gaming a similarly progressive and collaborative enterprise. But it lacks one of the cornerstones of the academic system: the requirement that each published work must directly indicate where its ideas came from. Wouldn't it be much easier for consumers to determine whether a publisher's product was maximising its use of "good ideas" if a direct citation system made it clear which ideas from prior products were being used? If a student picks up a book about sociology, it's immediately clear whether the evidence cited to support the book's conclusion comes from a reputable source or from Mein Kampf.JD Wiker of the Game Mechanics is, I believe, in a unique position to speak since the OGC from Swords of our Fathers has been through an unusually wide range of permutations (published as a PDF, reprinted by Wizards, and perhaps soon to be made freely available as part of the unauthorized "Unearthed Arcana SRD"). Here's a quote from my correspondence with him (made public with his permission):"As the OGL attracts more and more publishers--some of whom are new to the publishing business--the need for a more organized system of accurate attribution would seem obvious. Good ideas deserve recognition, and the current system--where the majority of books are designed by multiple designers, and some of the material is borrowed from other sources under the terms of the OGL--leaves a bit too much room for doubt. I don't think that a paragraph-by-paragraph citation is called for, but a compromise between that and the current system should be explored, and not dismissed outright as unfeasible."The <a href="http://www.behemoth3.com/downloads/SwoRD_Project_Description.rtf" target="_blank">SwoRD Project</a>  is my attempt to encourage direct citation among publishers and other users of the OGL. By releasing the complete Open Game Content of Behemoth3's initial Horde Books, but doing so in a way that maintains the link to the source (i.e., a one-click hyperlink to our direct sales channel for the Horde Books), we hope to demonstrate the commercial advantages of a direct citation system.More importantly, however, I think direct citation is vital to the ongoing health of any open community of ideas. Since gaming is the community I love best, I'd like to see it benefit from the techniques that have already been evolved in academics and science. I understand the reasoning behind protecting trademarks and limiting compatibility claims in Section 7, and I don't think a direct citation system requires an immediate revision of the OGL--just the support of key players in the community. I welcome any and all help in promoting and recruiting support for these ideas.</blockquote>

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