OGC Declaration and Content ?

[danzig138]

Hello,
On one of the OGL mailing lists, this was brought up, and I think the person raised a good question concerning the OGC declaration of a product. I've removed the name of the publisher and product for this discussion.

Declaration
of Open Content: 100% of this Product is Open Content subject to the Product Identity
listed here: “(publisher name removed)”, “(product name removed)”, alterations to psionic combat,
alterations to psion, alterations to psychic warrior, Psionic Gifts, all new feats, all
new powers, all new items, all new prestige classes, all new organizations. License to
use these items can be acquired privately.

Is this a legal declartion of OGC? If I understand this correctly, the feats and other materials are being claimed as PI, but I was under the impression that mechanics and such, like feat descriptions, could not be claimed as PI, since they are derivitive of OGC. Or at least, the mechanics of such are automatically OGC.So now I'm just confused.

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, IANAL, but the first section of the OGL defines what product identity is:

""Product Identity" means product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including trade dress; artifacts; creatures characters; stories, storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork, symbols, designs, depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photographic and other visual or audio representations; names and descriptions of characters, spells, enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; places, locations, environments, creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or registered trademark clearly identified as Product identity by the owner of the Product Identity, and which specifically excludes the Open Game Content;"


So I would say that you understand correctly, and that the maker of that publication is wrong. They could claim the names of all new feats, classes, and such as product identity, and the descriptions, but not the mechanics.