OGL and translation

[elforcelf]

Laws in Germany are tough. I heard that you must go to court for nameing your children.elforcelf.

 

[Selganor]

It's not that bad. There are just some "restrictions" on how you may call your children.
So, "A boy named Sue" will usualy not happen in Germany as will some other occurences when parents try to give their children names which will only trouble the child or the like.

 

[elforcelf]

So no Moon Unit Zappa? Hey.I think she is cute."VALLEY GIRL...." elforcelf.

 

[elforcelf]

So I a val you know,like 4ed would like gag me with a spoon,like it would be so boo-fu. elforcelf.So it dates me,so what.

 

[DragonSword]

So I a val you know,like 4ed would like gag me with a spoon,like it would be so boo-fu. elforcelf.So it dates me,so what.

Sorry but that last post made about as much sense to me as a intoxicated dyslexic dwarf with insomnia (no offense any intoxicated dyslexic dwarves) ranting about their favourite alcoholic beverage.

Could you post it again in English, just for my sake? Or am I just too young to get some strange dated joke?

DS, who is about as confused by that last post as an intoxicated dyslexic dwarf with insomnia!

 

[elforcelf]

Does no one know what I am talking about?elforcelf. :\

 

[afstanton]

I remember...I'm 36...

 

[Chacal]

On the other hand Asmodee/Spellbooks, the official publisher of the French version of D&D has released a translation of the SRD 3.5. It is available on their site : www.asmodee.com. Translation of the SRD is possible under the license.

Interesting. Thanks for the link.

Now I will understand what some of my players with french books are talking about.



Chacal

 

[cgern]

Apparently in Germany it's not that easy...

The translation seems to be copyrighted by German laws. And if you use it you violate these laws (or at least so Amigo and Feder&Schwert, the companies that got the license to translate D&D, claim)

AND I've heard them say that WotC "forces" them to even forbid "fan projects" where fans try to get a "German <-> English"-List of the terms and their official translations, even if they are just a few words used in postings on boards.

That's a really bad thing. Even if your English is not so bad it is nearly impossible to use german and english publications at the same time without problems. Many spell names for example are very similar to each other and you often cannot tell if the german spell is the one or the other original spell without reading the descriptive texts. If you only use english products there is no such a problem. Perhaps this is the intention behind these restrictions - if you want to profit from the wide range of d20 licence products available in English you have no other choice than to buy the English Core Rulebooks even if you already own all the german books.

 

[yennico]

I´m no lawyer, but

A translation of OGC is a derived work, so it is allowed.

This is not correct. IIRC the translator has the copyrights of his translation. Only if the translator or the publisher of the translation allows to use the translation, you can use the translation.

IIRC in Germany the publisher do not allow the use of the OGC.