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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8890552" data-attributes="member: 42582">I take it you are asking - how could WotC (i) get hobbyists to create works, which is 1.0a OGC, such that (ii) WotC is the only part with legal permission to use that work in a VTT context?I think the answer to that question is It can't. Parties to the OGL v 1.0a have agreed to acknowledge WotC's copyright in the SRD and any other OGC it contributes into the ecosystem, have agreed to respect WotC's product identity as the OGL v 1.0a requires them to do, and have promised to license their own OGC on the same terms. Those terms include the granting to WotC of a non-exclusive royalty-free licence to reproduce the hobbyists' OGC.For WotC to gain an exclusive licence to the reproduction of that OGC on a VTT, as far as I can see they would have to renegotiate the terms of the hobbyists' licences.[USER=20741]@Steel_Wind[/USER] post #1358 sets out, in broad terms, the case for the strength of Paizo's rights under the OGL v 1.0/1.0a. No hobbyist is in the same position as Paizo. But they are party to a contract in the same terms as Paizo's. And I simply don't see where that contract confers an authority on WotC to unilaterally deprive licensees of the permission to publish their own licensed work, and to sub-license their own published work, wherever and however they choose to.Even if, contrary to what I think is the best view, WotC were able to revoke the licence granted to those hobbyists, the upshot would be that (i) those hobbyists continued to enjoy copyright in their work but (ii) its derivative character, in relation to WotC's SRD, might mean that publishing it would infringe WotC's copyrights, and hence (iii) those hobbyists would no longer be able to publish their work. This would not give WotC a right to publish that work in the context of a VTT, let alone the exclusive right to do so.(Of course, if those hobbyists become parties to the OGL v 1.1 then it's different. That would be them agreeing to new contractual terms.)</blockquote>

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