Has WotC ever enforced the OGL?

[Lonely Tylenol]

I don't know of any. I suppose they prefer to operate in as friendly a way as possible.

The whole Fast Forwad thing is looking more and more like a publicity stunt by FFE the more I think about it. It worked on me - curiosity over the apparent infringements is the only reason I bought Rings of Power.

Mastering Iron Heroes includes alternative character advancement rules (which I though was a d20 no-no) but it doesn't look like anybody cares.

I suppose one sanction would be that if you rip off someone else's intellectual property in violation of the OGL then it makes if difficult to complain if other people return the favour.

Mastering Iron Heroes is not a d20 product, so the d20 license doesn't apply. It is still an OGL-based product, however. The OGL and the d20 system licence are two different things.

 

[BryonD]

Mastering Iron Heroes includes alternative character advancement rules (which I though was a d20 no-no) but it doesn't look like anybody cares.

I'm pretty sure Mastering Iron Heroes is not under the D20L.

Edit: Beat me to it.

 

[philreed]

The whole Fast Forwad thing is looking more and more like a publicity stunt by FFE the more I think about it.

Yeah, I heard that there were very few copies of those books remaining and this was completely a publicity stunt.

 

[Henry]

TO my knowledge, the only thing they've done to date are a bunch of Cease & Desist letters, as said over d20 issues. Most of it was in the early years (2001-2002) on the tail end of Ryan Dancey leaving and during the tenure of Anthony V.

 

[Greatwyrm]

I can't recall the name, but I seem to remember one very early on. Someone had published a seafaring/trading setting based on a farily extensive LARP setting. I think they forgot to put in the OGL itself. Twin Crowns? Twin Rose? Something like that.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Twin Rose is a software company lol.

 

[JohnNephew]

Yeah, I heard that there were very few copies of those books remaining and this was completely a publicity stunt.

I've spoken with a retailer who apparently bought something over a dozen pallets of FFE material, with payment terms over 5 years (and a purchase price in the single digits %-of-MSRP), right around the time of the public "we're destroying these books that don't comply with the OGL" statements. My guess is they decided to dump their inventory, sales of which had died in the regular channels (or dwindled near to nothing, as was happening for most d20 releases soon after they were released); and, as you suggest, they may have made it into a publicity stunt, to kill the "flagrant OGL/d20STL violations" bird with the same stone.

 

[Greatwyrm]

Twin Rose is a software company lol.

Turns out my first guess was right. Twin Crowns.

http://www.mortality.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=8

Twin Crowns: Age of Exploration Fantasy
Posted by Donatello on 2002-01-10 11:11:22
My score:

You''re right, Anonymous, and we inadvertantly did violate many parts of the OGL in our first printing. The book we sold at Origins was, though, only our Beta copy, and only a couple hundred were printed for the purposes of reviews and editing. The book we are marketting now is 100% OGL compliant after revision, and anyone that has a Beta copy can contact us to trade in their old book for a new one.

We''ve had a hard time with other publishers doing their best to insult us and publicly (and usually anonymously) leading a witch-hunt against us. When Ryan Dancey contacted us about our OGL woes, we immediately sprang to action. We had no intention of mass-marketting our Beta copies, and after conversations with Mr. Dancey and some intervention from our legal department, we have done all that we could to conform to WotC''s wishes. These legal issues, though, have not affected the core of our content. We at Living Imagination appreciate Kithmaker''s review, and we assure the general gaming public that we are 100% legal.

 

[Remathilis]

Didn't Anthony V. Himself have problems with his book of erotic fanasty (font size, etc)?

 

[Glyfair]

what where the violations? Because if the product violated any trademarks or PI content then it clearly violates the OGL as well.

IRRC, the "wave" of notices that got handed out that one time mostly dealt with technical issues. I remember a few comments about the wrong sized d20 logos and incorrectly placed copyright notices.

At least one copy shipped out stickers to be placed over the d20 logos and in certain parts of their books, so it wasn't really a heavy-handed slap down by WotC. I think WotC was giving the publishers a reasonable amount of time to get used to the d20 license (and OGL), and had reached a point where it was time to notify publishers it was time to get their houses in order.