Is it OK to distribute others' OGC for free?

Let's take Mongoose's books of "Ultimate" OGL material, like Ultimate Feats, which strip mines existing OGL and republishes them in one volume. Are these okay because Mongoose is selling the book, and thus it isn't a no-brainer as to whether or not someone buys it or the original product?
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Cergorach said:
Oh, please explain.
I am not that cold blooded, but someone asking me nicely to drop something without a damn goo reason better be someone that is close to me or someone i want to be close to me. The reason for whole:

OK, I read it as "I'm going to do something that will hurt your business unless you give me something for free."

I see it as a stick-up.
 

This is all so very confusing. It has been an interesting discussion, but I am not sure what prompted this in the first place.

Has someone already posted a lot of OGC for free or is this just an academic discussion?

Honestly, though, I usually never look at free material. I have looked at the SRD, and even recommended it, but I only ever use it if I am at work and need to reference something from the PHB which is at home.

It really does not matter to me. I stopped buying PDFs, except for adventures. Period. I never looked at them after the initial purchase. I know some people may find them useful, but I can never figure out what to do with them and I am tired of buying a ton of folders to put printed stuff in and then having it not fit on a shelf. And Kinko's cost too much to bind making a PDF just a major hassle.

Adventure PDFs are cool because I use them once and can get rid of the paper copy.

I just do not see enough people using e-copies to make a difference. If they are the type to use an e-copy/ PDF and they have not paid for the PDF, then they will get it on KaZaa long before someone comes out with the OGC content.

Phil: I'm willing to bet that the PDF sales you have received in subsequent years are people who just found Ronin and then bought your back copies because they liked your materials. You will not lose those sales.

Of course, very few people will be savvy enough to ever find the free OGC on the web, so you are all talking about a very small number of people.
 

Kid Charlemagne said:
OK, I read it as "I'm going to do something that will hurt your business unless you give me something for free."

I see it as a stick-up.
It's not so much about getting something for free as it is, that i have to scan and OCR everything all over again if they print a new book. If they want me to do them a favor, they have to do me a favor by setting me on equal footing when their updated version is released.

The alternative would be "I don't care what you say because anything i might suggest might be construed as being a stick up.
 

Henry said:
Sadly, I think this is the most logical choice. Because the license cannot legally distinguish between "end user" and "publisher", legally there's nothing wrong here. In truth, it makes more sense to do it in Malhavoc-style than just releasing everything carte-blanche;

Right. After thinking about it, if this actually becomes an issue where people are losing business, this is probably the 90% likely outcome. Make it as difficult to use while staying within the license. It would be a shame, but thats how it is. That's just as ethical as rereleasing someone's OGC.
 

Piratecat said:
Let's take Mongoose's books of "Ultimate" OGL material, like Ultimate Feats, which strip mines existing OGL and republishes them in one volume. Are these okay because Mongoose is selling the book, and thus it isn't a no-brainer as to whether or not someone buys it or the original product?
What, posting here instead of you storyhour? Shame on you!
Arrg, well, that is...pretty please?

Oh, I'm supposed to stay on-topic, right? Well...
The question isn't whether its okay morally-wise, the question is what good will it to do us?
By publishing an SRD of an Ultimate product, you will drop its sales and supposedly make it nonprofitable. Is that a good thing? Frankly, for my money, yes - if it's just a collection, people can collect things for free, thank you.

By publishing an SRD of original work, say a campaign setting - including all the details of the work, suppose it's 100% OGC, you are discouraging the company from making more such OGC contributions. Is that a good thing? For my money, no - I want more such OGC to be published.

You can't put all products into one bag. It doesn't work that way.
 
Last edited:

philreed said:
You're right, that is pretty snarky.

Lol. I knew putting up that disclaimer would be a waste of time. :)
It was a honest question though. Direct maybe, but honest. I'm not some enemy of yours. Hell, i just playtested/proofread one of your PDFs last week!! But that doesn't mean i won't call them like i see them. I wasn't sure of your motives. So i asked.

philreed said:
What bothers me is that he's planning to release a full product for free. It should be WotC's choice to make. What he's doing is perfectly legal and allowed by the license but, I feel, it has too great a potential for negative effects down the line.

Well we just disagree. Tons and tons of free OGC has been released by companeis, fans, websites, etc. You as well. I haven't much negative effects from it. In fact, i've seen much positive effect from it on the hobby. So has WOTC and publishers like yourself, in fact. I don't see this point as valid. At all.

philreed said:
Do I wish WotC had released an UA SRD? Absolutely! There's some great new material in there and I've actually released some of it in products. But very small sections and not for free.

So does that mean its okay if Cergorach decides to sell the product then?

philreed said:
It has nothing to do with me "getting a cut of the action." Hell, an online version of UA is likely to be a very useful tool for me. But, as I've said too many times, I feel it's WotC's choice to release such a tool.

Well they knew by releasing it as OGC it might well happen. So they DID make the choice. By not releasing it as SRD they are basically saying "Do it yourself if you want to". I'm QUITE sure that if the suits at WOTC thought releasing the book as OGC was going to hurt them....they sure as heck wouldn't have done it! Regardless of even that, you don't GIVE someone a license to do something if you don't want them to actually do it. Or at least doesn't expect many people feel sorry for you.

Well, so far the only real claim i can sift from all the arguements (not just yours Phil) is that people are just kinda honked of that he doesn't plan to charge for it. Amazing.

He plans on creating something that will require a LOT of work to do (unless he has 'Super OCR/Scan FU') and then, when he has waited long enough to avoid hurting theoretical sales, he plans on giving it to us for free.

String him up! He'll destroy the OGL community! D&D will go out of business! The D20 community will fold or quit! Everyone will go back to hording their oh-so-wonderful treasures!

I doubt all that severely.

I'd add a few other thoughts i have, but they WOULD be darned snarky. So i'll just eat them instead. :)

In fact i probably shouldn't have posted that last sentence...naner, naner! :p
 

BelenUmeria said:
I know some people may find them useful, but I can never figure out what to do with them and I am tired of buying a ton of folders to put printed stuff in and then having it not fit on a shelf. And Kinko's cost too much to bind making a PDF just a major hassle.

You may want to check out:

http://www.lulu.com/content/81133

PDF publishers can use this site to get their products into print. So far it hasn't worked for me, but I'm hoping that someday people will start to use the site.
 

PJ-Mason said:
Lol. I knew putting up that disclaimer would be a waste of time. :)
It was a honest question though. Direct maybe, but honest. I'm not some enemy of yours. Hell, i just playtested/proofread one of your PDFs last week!! But that doesn't mean i won't call them like i see them. I wasn't sure of your motives. So i asked.

String him up! He'll destroy the OGL community! D&D will go out of business! The D20 community will fold or quit! Everyone will go back to hording their oh-so-wonderful treasures!

I'm certainly not trying to say that he needs to be executed or ostracized. (Hmmm. I wish I could spell.)

I meant my comment about snarky to just be kidding. I don't think anyone here has acted in a manner that would describe them as an enemy of anyone. This has been a very civil, enlightening discussion.
 

Gahh!!! By the time i post a reply with my slow-A@@ dial up ISP, there has already been, like, 3 or 4 others replies that should have been touched on in my thread. This site gets too slow for me at these hours!! :mad:

"I look for things to make me go! I am not strong....."
 

Remove ads

Top