How is this legal?

[philreed]

What did you think?

Well, since I had to pick it up just to see what it was like....sort of like roadkill I guess.

The person who wrote the comment on rpgnow is listed third in the list of playtesters.

I hadn't noticed that. I did notice the "liberally borrowed from Bruce R. Cordell" in the credits. That's funny.

 

[HellHound]

"To those with a copy, what does the OGL in the back look like?"

The OGL in the back, unfortunately, shows an absolute lack of knowledge in the actual mechanics and systems of the Open Game License.

It is the OGL directly off the d20 site, without ANYTHING added to it. It does NOT cite the SRD even, nor does it include itself in the section 15 (thus being in violation of section 6).

In addition, nowhere in the book does it indicate what material in the document is released as Open Game Content, thus being in violation of Section 8 of the license.

This is of course, skipping over the fact that a lot of the material being used in the book is Product Identity of Wizards of the Coast, thus being in violation of Section 7.

(and for those who aren't publishers or OGL-savvy here - EACH of these sections are CLEARLY spelled out in very simple english in the License... the very license that was included in the document in question - effectively, this is in effect signing a legal contract at the same time as breaking EVERY section of said legal contract)

"The same one I never print out in any of my downloads. "

Quite untrue, unless you only downloaded material from other people who don't understand the Open Game License. Just about everyone by now knows how to at least make the Section 15 of the OGL cite the System Reference Document.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

Well, since I had to pick it up just to see what it was like....sort of like roadkill I guess.

The person who wrote the comment on rpgnow is listed third in the list of playtesters.

So, do I win some kind of prize for getting that right without having even seen the product?

 

[tensen]

"The same one I never print out in any of my downloads. "

Quite untrue, unless you only downloaded material from other people who don't understand the Open Game License. Just about everyone by now knows how to at least make the Section 15 of the OGL cite the System Reference Document.

I think he meant that he didn't print the license page whenever he prints out a PDF.

 

[Ghostwind]

At least the book has been pulled off of RPGNow so no one else can get ahold of it. From everything the author/publisher has openly said, it is clear he has no grasp of the proper procedures that need to be followed in order to publish under the d20 system, starting with the use of the SRD...

 

[HellHound]

What -is- interesting, is that you can still buy the product if you have a direct link to the product page itself.

It's effectively no longer on the storefront @ RPGnow, but is still in the "back room", hidden under some dark cloth or some such.

 

[Morrus]

I'm going to close this thread, since we have two others on the same subject.