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<blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1560526" data-attributes="member: 10201">Except that, for the last few decades, copyright duration has been steadily increasing at equal to or greater than the rate of time passage. If the current trend continues--and i see no reason to think it won't--nothing will ever pass into the public domain from age again. Only those things deliberately released into the public domain will be there.Has anybody advocated that in this thread? What has been advocated is terminating copyright after a &quot;reasonable&quot; time, with differing opinions on what that means. Shortest i've seen advocated was 10 years, which is hardly &quot;instantly&quot;. And, in most cases, probably exceeds the significant profit period of the work.Agreed. On balance, D20 System has lessened, not increased creativity in RPG design. However, we are luckily in a period when other production factors (easy quality e-publishing, affordable POD, online sales, etc.) have caused a simultaneous upswing in envelope pushing among commercial RPGs--you just have to hang out somewhere like The Forge to find out about them. Also, i disagree with the contention that systems like Storyteller, GURPS, HERO, D20 System, and other &quot;mainstream&quot; systems are really all that different. Conceptually, they're not significantly more differentiated than two D20 System games (such as M&amp;MM and Spycraft, frex). Outside of the occasional innovator, most RPGs have been basically the same, mechanically. D20 System is just reinforcing this behavior and making it more obvious.&nbsp;Oh, and don't blame the WotC OGL, blame the D20SRD and/or the D20STL--the WotC OGL, for all it's flaws, is not to blame for the homogeneity of mechanics. It's just a [mostly-]open content license. It's the material that's been released under it, and the trademark license that accompanies it, that feed into the homogeneity. That, and the current vicious circle of consumer demand and producer marketing.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="woodelf, post: 1560526, member: 10201"] Except that, for the last few decades, copyright duration has been steadily increasing at equal to or greater than the rate of time passage. If the current trend continues--and i see no reason to think it won't--nothing will ever pass into the public domain from age again. Only those things deliberately released into the public domain will be there. Has anybody advocated that in this thread? What has been advocated is terminating copyright after a "reasonable" time, with differing opinions on what that means. Shortest i've seen advocated was 10 years, which is hardly "instantly". And, in most cases, probably exceeds the significant profit period of the work. Agreed. On balance, D20 System has lessened, not increased creativity in RPG design. However, we are luckily in a period when other production factors (easy quality e-publishing, affordable POD, online sales, etc.) have caused a simultaneous upswing in envelope pushing among commercial RPGs--you just have to hang out somewhere like The Forge to find out about them. Also, i disagree with the contention that systems like Storyteller, GURPS, HERO, D20 System, and other "mainstream" systems are really all that different. Conceptually, they're not significantly more differentiated than two D20 System games (such as M&MM and Spycraft, frex). Outside of the occasional innovator, most RPGs have been basically the same, mechanically. D20 System is just reinforcing this behavior and making it more obvious. Oh, and don't blame the WotC OGL, blame the D20SRD and/or the D20STL--the WotC OGL, for all it's flaws, is not to blame for the homogeneity of mechanics. It's just a [mostly-]open content license. It's the material that's been released under it, and the trademark license that accompanies it, that feed into the homogeneity. That, and the current vicious circle of consumer demand and producer marketing. [/QUOTE]

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