Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Publishing Business & Licensing
Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong about the OGL and SRD. Clearing up confusion.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Enrahim2" data-source="post: 8911170" data-attributes="member: 7039850"><p>I can answer as a software engineer. "Paraphrasing" the <em>free </em>source code of an open source project into your closed source project is something we know to not be OK. Looking at open source for educational purposes to get ideas for how elements can be used are commonly accepted though.</p><p></p><p>The concept that there is a distinction between the elements that make up a system and the whole system hence is something that come natural to us.</p><p></p><p>Another thing to be aware of is that it is possible to construct source code that look remarkably similar to "everyday language". Hence the level of paraphrasing you might imagine having to take place might not be so substantial as you might think. For instance "if you fall, you take 1d6 damage per 10 feet falled" might come out as something like "if(event.type == fall) takeDamage(dice(6).times(event.heightInFeet/10));". In this regard the writing the code would be more likened to translation than any kind of pure reexpression.</p><p></p><p>Luckily the proposed CC appear to include almost everything that would be natural to include in <em>code form</em>, so this isn't really a question at all. The big issue is with the things that in a software project would normally be found in asset packs. This would for instance be the numerical values describing the stats and combat abilities of the owlbear. If these values were punched into any tool while looking at the owlbear statblock without a license to use it, that would to me appear an obvious copyright issue. It wouldn't matter if that tool was a programming language, a hex editor or some nice graphical vtt npc sheet. It would still be "copying" in my mind. (However the question if a statblock is copyrightable I leave to the lawyers. At least in my mind it do not align with my internal understanding of a "process")</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Enrahim2, post: 8911170, member: 7039850"] I can answer as a software engineer. "Paraphrasing" the [I]free [/I]source code of an open source project into your closed source project is something we know to not be OK. Looking at open source for educational purposes to get ideas for how elements can be used are commonly accepted though. The concept that there is a distinction between the elements that make up a system and the whole system hence is something that come natural to us. Another thing to be aware of is that it is possible to construct source code that look remarkably similar to "everyday language". Hence the level of paraphrasing you might imagine having to take place might not be so substantial as you might think. For instance "if you fall, you take 1d6 damage per 10 feet falled" might come out as something like "if(event.type == fall) takeDamage(dice(6).times(event.heightInFeet/10));". In this regard the writing the code would be more likened to translation than any kind of pure reexpression. Luckily the proposed CC appear to include almost everything that would be natural to include in [I]code form[/I], so this isn't really a question at all. The big issue is with the things that in a software project would normally be found in asset packs. This would for instance be the numerical values describing the stats and combat abilities of the owlbear. If these values were punched into any tool while looking at the owlbear statblock without a license to use it, that would to me appear an obvious copyright issue. It wouldn't matter if that tool was a programming language, a hex editor or some nice graphical vtt npc sheet. It would still be "copying" in my mind. (However the question if a statblock is copyrightable I leave to the lawyers. At least in my mind it do not align with my internal understanding of a "process") [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Publishing Business & Licensing
Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong about the OGL and SRD. Clearing up confusion.
Top