OGC Reuse Value

[jgbrowning]

No, "You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open Game Content " That means anything in Section 15 of the book you find that one feat in, must be duplicated in your Section 15. Now, if you can find another book with the same feat with an earlier, different Section 15, you can reference that. Just like the Netbook of Feats folk provide individual releases of the feats so you would not have to duplicate the entire Section 15 of the netbook just to access one feat.

what if one of the copyrights is the elmore book of clip art.

you know you haven't ever used any of his clip art so you are not responsible for putting his copyright in your book if you use other OGC from a book that used the elmore book of clip art.

The exact text does not mean "all of the text, exactly" it means "exact text.... of any open game content."

you don't use the content, you don't put it in your 15.

however, as most things aren't nearly that clear cut as the elmore book thing, copying the entire section 15 is the only way to be sure. this would be corrected if people located what was open and from where when they used OGC.

now, I could be wrong here, but that's how i've been reading it. comments?

joe b.

 

[Staffan]

As always, I'm Not A Lawyer, and I haven't scrutinized the OGL to see if it would restrict this, but...you aren't using trademarked names anywhere but where you're supposed to, it's almost free advertising, it's convenient, and it's fairly unobtrusive.

Necromancer Games' Tome of Horrors uses a somewhat similar method, except they put the S15 in the monster writeups. On the plus side, that makes it easy to use just one monster from the book. On the negative side, if you're using many monsters you'll be getting a huge section 15, because you have to include the S15 for each and every monster. It would look something like this:

SRD
Monster 1
Monster 2
Monster 3
Monster 4
Your own book

Still, it's worth looking into.

 

[jmucchiello]

however, as most things aren't nearly that clear cut as the elmore book thing, copying the entire section 15 is the only way to be sure.

Please join the OGL-L@opengamingfoundation.org mailing list and ask these kinds of questions. There are actual lawyers on the list (who won't give legal advice) but do express a learned opinion or two.

As I've seen it discussed on said listserv, you must include every single thing referenced in the source Section15 even if you know what you are using did not come from that particular book. No exceptions.

this would be corrected if people located what was open and from where when they used OGC.

The OGL is actually very hostile toward giving people credit for their specific work. You cannot use other company's trademarks to indicate compatibility, you cannot reference them in your advertising.

Take the project you are working on: Internet Arcana. Anyone finding a useful piece of OGC in that book will have to find the original source of the OGC or be forced to use your Section 15. They will have to get a copy of that original source because they will have to copy its Section 15.

No, it does not work the way a lot people would like it to but that's life.

 

[jmucchiello]

what if one of the copyrights is the elmore book of clip art.

you know you haven't ever used any of his clip art so you are not responsible for putting his copyright in your book if you use other OGC from a book that used the elmore book of clip art.

If Wizards had intended that interpretation they would have said "You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open Game Content unless you know that the listed item is not the original source of the material you are reusing." They didn't include text that even remotely resembled this.

The exact text does not mean "all of the text, exactly" it means "exact text.... of any open game content."

There are opinions on the mailing list that thing Exact means EXACT. That your Section 15 should look like this.

Open Gaming License 1.0a .....
SRD ....
Joe's Book of Enchantment ....

Open Gaming License 1.0a
SRD
Slayers Guide to Mongoose ....

Open Gaming License 1.0a....
SRD...
Joe's Book of Enchantment...
Open Gaming License 1.0a....
SRD...
Slayer's Guide to Slayers....
Necromancer's Folly ....

Open Gaming License 1.0a....
SRD...
Joe's Book of Enchantment...
Open Gaming License 1.0a....
SRD...
Slayer's Guide to Slayers....
Necromancer's Folly ....
Open Gaming License 1.0a
SRD
Slayers Guide to Mongoose ....
More Necromantic Fun ....

Now nobody takes Exact that exactly but your method is even more liberal.

 

[jgbrowning]

Please join the OGL-L@opengamingfoundation.org mailing list and ask these kinds of questions. There are actual lawyers on the list (who won't give legal advice) but do express a learned opinion or two.

Done. I'll see what the arguments for that reading are, but i imagine it will come out something like...

1. When it says open game content, it doesn't specify part or whole. So if you were to use only one line from a OGL book, and that one line was open content, you'd have copy that books section 15 exactly (regardless of what actual OGC from that book your publishing). IE. interpreting OGC as non-divisible when relating to a single product.

and (and the one i think most important from a lawyerly perspective)

2. CYA. Use the most stringent reading possible to minimise risk and maximise defensibility.

upon consideration and with hope for offense towards none, I guess I'll just copy exactly for Internet Arcana....

even the one that's in all caps...

joe b.

 

[trancejeremy]

The Second World Sourcebook does it fairly cleverly.

It says "So and such is from the 4th item in section 15 of the OGL"

Such and such is from the 6th item, and so on.

 

[Gold Rush Games]

The OGL is actually very hostile toward giving people credit for their specific work. You cannot use other company's trademarks to indicate compatibility, you cannot reference them in your advertising.

You cannot do so without written permission, true. Fortunately, getting that permission from some companies is very easy. For example, the d20 STL and the Action! System Trademark License both provide this permission as long as you adhere to the terms of the respective license.

Heck, in our Action! System Trademark License we even give permission to reference other books we publish in text (but not the use of the trademark logos).