Ruin Explorer
Legend
No.Legally speaking, for most of the content creators the OGL was and is useless, even if it does make them feel safe.
That's a misunderstanding that a lot of people have because he didn't cover the OGC aspect of the OGL, except as if it was the SRD only. This seems to be misunderstanding he gained by talking to people, so I don't blame him for it.
It's not "legally useless". On the contrary, it provides legal safe harbour for content sharing. Not just of SRDs, but of other material designated Open Gaming Content (which includes all mechanics of games with the OGL).
The fact that you thus don't need to spring for lawyer and brace for lawsuits is huge, and very far from useless.
What he's trying to express is that you can, in fact, make a D&D-compatible product without the OGL or anything like it, but you WILL need to spring for a lawyer and brace for lawsuits (which he believes - and I agree - you will likely win - that won't stop them happening though). At the very least, the OGL 1.0a was likely to save you a lot of money.