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Hypothetical: I ignore OGL 1.x
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<blockquote data-quote="macd21" data-source="post: 8896832" data-attributes="member: 6683793"><p>Ah, no, you skipped a step there. Before “Publisher presents Exhibit A, OGL 1.0a as their evidence they had a license” there’s the “Discovery” bit. </p><p></p><p>In discovery WotC’s lawyers will ask you to hand over a bunch of documents. These documents may hurt your case (even if you think they don’t). You will probably be legally obliged to hand over those documents (and will essentially auto-lose if you don’t). They may also ask for documents that you <em>don’t </em>have to hand over. Figuring out which is which will require an expensive lawyer. And if you <em>can’t </em>pass on the documents (they’re lost, destroyed, never existed in the first place), you probably need a lawyer who knows how to deal with that.</p><p></p><p>And of course discovery allows you to ask them for stuff - but what stuff should/can you ask for? Again: you need a lawyer.</p><p></p><p>All that will take time (probably at least a year, maybe 2). If you hire a lawyer, you’re probably out a few hundred thousand dollars. And that’s before you consider your own time spent dealing with it. If you don’t hire a lawyer, you will lose. </p><p></p><p>Once it comes to trial, you better still have that lawyer, because if you don’t then you will lose. Waving the license in front of the judge isn’t enough. WotC’s lawyers will eloquently explain that they have the right to revoke the license, using the wording of the license itself, past case law, the testimony of legal experts etc.</p><p></p><p>If you win, the judge <em>might </em>force WotC to pay your legal fees. If you lose, or win but are not awarded costs, then you’ve quite possibly spent more money on legal fees than you made on the sale of your product.</p><p></p><p>So any 3PP has to ask themselves if it’s worth it? Instead of producing under the 1.0 OGL and risking litigation, why not either publish under 1.1 or else (more likely) just publish using a different system altogether?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="macd21, post: 8896832, member: 6683793"] Ah, no, you skipped a step there. Before “Publisher presents Exhibit A, OGL 1.0a as their evidence they had a license” there’s the “Discovery” bit. In discovery WotC’s lawyers will ask you to hand over a bunch of documents. These documents may hurt your case (even if you think they don’t). You will probably be legally obliged to hand over those documents (and will essentially auto-lose if you don’t). They may also ask for documents that you [I]don’t [/I]have to hand over. Figuring out which is which will require an expensive lawyer. And if you [I]can’t [/I]pass on the documents (they’re lost, destroyed, never existed in the first place), you probably need a lawyer who knows how to deal with that. And of course discovery allows you to ask them for stuff - but what stuff should/can you ask for? Again: you need a lawyer. All that will take time (probably at least a year, maybe 2). If you hire a lawyer, you’re probably out a few hundred thousand dollars. And that’s before you consider your own time spent dealing with it. If you don’t hire a lawyer, you will lose. Once it comes to trial, you better still have that lawyer, because if you don’t then you will lose. Waving the license in front of the judge isn’t enough. WotC’s lawyers will eloquently explain that they have the right to revoke the license, using the wording of the license itself, past case law, the testimony of legal experts etc. If you win, the judge [I]might [/I]force WotC to pay your legal fees. If you lose, or win but are not awarded costs, then you’ve quite possibly spent more money on legal fees than you made on the sale of your product. So any 3PP has to ask themselves if it’s worth it? Instead of producing under the 1.0 OGL and risking litigation, why not either publish under 1.1 or else (more likely) just publish using a different system altogether? [/QUOTE]
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