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lowkey13
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*Deleted by user*
Yeah, he isn't winning any allies with this whole thing.I'm not sure he's helping himself in the court of public opinion.
I feel like he only opens his mouth to change feet.
He's claiming the OGL is an unenforceable document -that bears watching. Especially as he seems to be an experienced IP attorney and looks to be throwing bombs at WoTC.
Claims that it is unenforceable do not bear watching. Court cases to that effect do.
Also, as a person who has received C&D requests from WotC, Frylock is hardly an unbiased analyst who's thoughts on the matter should be trusted, hm?
"I was asked to stop, so here is a public post of my reasons why I don't have to," is not so much a presentation of analysis as it is trying the case in the court of public opinion.
The OGL and Open Source software licenses are superficially similar but fundamentally different. By accepting the OGL you gain permission to use some of WotC's copyrightet material in exchange for not doing certain other things which you'd normally have the right to do, such as using a name that WotC deems "product identity"Mostly I'm rubbernecking, tbh. He's decided to pick a fight intentionally with WotC over this because he thinks he has a point to make. He's not a small company getting thrown up against the wall by a big corporation, just a lawyer who thinks he's going to prove a point in court about how Wizards can't possibly own the copyright to the rules they publish. That makes this "fun" to watch instead of angrifying - if he loses, well, he should have had a bit more humility and maybe hired another lawyer to check his work. If he wins then we may see fallout all over the game industry as well as in the software industry. The OGL was specifically modeled after open source software licenses, and as IANAL I have no idea how much fallout there might be if there is some declaration that even expressions of game rules can't be copywritten - which is what my non-lawyerly eyes read him as saying.
Why does it seem like you are soo against the guy?
The OGL and Open Source software licenses are superficially similar but fundamentally different. By accepting the OGL you gain permission to use some of WotC's copyrightet material in exchange for not doing certain other things which you'd normally have the right to do, such as using a name that WotC deems "product identity"
Open Source licenses on the other hand do not ask you to restrict excising your rights , they let you use certain copyrighted material in exchange for explicitly taking certain action, usually sharing any modifications you make to the software and/or giving credit to the original creator.