[PR] The Association of OGL Publishers

[NemesisPress]

The Association of OGL Publishers is a trade organization for anyone involved or interested in publishing under Open Gaming Licenses.

It's specifically designed for any company that publishes under an OGL license and that doesn't have the resources to know and do everything themselves as well as they would like.

It's open to anyone who's interested in OGL issues and doesn't advocate subverting them.



Its mission is

1. to give OGL publishers a unified voice in matters where, as individuals, they might otherwise remain unheard; and

2. to provide those publishers with support in all areas relating to the creation, production, sales, marketing, and distribution of OGL products.



It's founded on the following core principles:

unrestricted use of OGLs

one company / one vote

blind ballots

free and unrestricted membership


Stop by and take part in the community message boards. (You'll need to register with EZBoard to post.)

www.oglpublishers.org

 

[Telgian]

Greetings,

You may wish to differentiate between OGL publishers and those publishers that are companies as well.

For instance: The Planar Cosmography: Netbook of Planes could be considered a d20/OGL publisher (and seems to be in some quarters), yet we are not a company. The same applies to the FANcc netbooks.

Food for thought.
Telgian.

 

[Orcus]

Its mission is

1. to give OGL publishers a unified voice in matters where, as individuals, they might otherwise remain unheard; and
2. to provide those publishers with support in all areas relating to the creation, production, sales, marketing, and distribution of OGL products.

It's founded on the following core principles:

unrestricted use of OGLs
one company / one vote
blind ballots
free and unrestricted membership

We already have that. Its called the d20 Publisher forum here on ENWorld. Its unrestricted. Anyone can post. Everyone has an equal voice. We can discuss issues of mutual interest.

You might also try the OGF OGL and d20 lists.

No need to reinvent the wheel.

And, despite your claims, there is NO publisher that is trying to "subvert" OGL issues. Of course I'm sure I will hear that by posting this information I am trying to subvert things.

Clark

 

[NemesisPress]

The Association of OGL Publishers is not a forum. It is a voluntary trade organization which will use the combined resources of its members to provide support to those members in all the areas mentioned.

Anyone (whether a company or not) is welcome to join as an associate member. However, to stop larger (or merely louder) companies from dominating the organization, voting membership will have to be restricted to one representative from each legally constituted company (whether for-profit or not). Acceptable proof would be a business license, tax id number, or other official documentation of a legal entity.

The organization is specifically for companies whose business depends on the unrestricted use of OGLs - as opposed to others who might see OGLs as merely a necessary evil or even a short-term "fad." I'm sure that those companies have their own agendas and their own forums in which to advance them.

 

[MEG Hal]

The organization is specifically for companies whose business depends on the unrestricted use of OGLs - as opposed to others who might see OGLs as merely a necessary evil or even a short-term "fad." I'm sure that those companies have their own agendas and their own forums in which to advance them.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?

I have met most of the publishers over the last year and a half and have never felt that way at all. No one, not even WoTC folks have ever given me the impression it was a fad or a necessary evil, and I have people who have worked (and still do) on the FanCC netbooks and even started our own for Bluffside, so if anyone would sense that someone is trying to "improperly use" the OGL I hope I would be one of them.....Clark would also be one that I feel would see through someone. I feel that the above statement is not fair to companies who use the agreement fairly and have never had any issues with anyone before...the bottom line is-------what has made you feel that a company has hurt you (or another) with their use (or lack of) the OGL? And what can companies do so this does not happen again.

I would like more clarification on the above statement for I feel the comments are only meant to excite and upset publishers.

 

[Morrus]

voting membership will have to be restricted to one representative from each legally constituted company (whether for-profit or not). Acceptable proof would be a business license, tax id number, or other official documentation of a legal entity.

Isn't that a bit elitist? Many sole traders don't have that sort of documentation. How does it prevent large publishers from shouting down smaller ones? To the contrary, it gives them (the people who don't need help) a voice where many people who might need help don't have one.

 

[Orcus]

Isnt it funny how people who complain about rules and restrictions always seem to be the first people to go set up their own rules and restrictions.

Clark

 

[NemesisPress]

I don't know the laws in the UK, but in the US if you sell a product you have to have a tax id - even if you don't collect tax because you sell only to out-of-state customers.

(Of course, a tax return would also be ok, if on it you declare profit or loss from your business.)

If you don't have some kind of documentation like this, you are not in business, you have a hobby - and you are still welcome to join as an associate member.


As for Hal's question, the following recent quotes come to mind:

"I think that 90% of companies would not declare anything open if they didnt have to...We use the d20/OGL licenses because it is the best we get. Not because we have faith in the product line.

"the 'industry' existed before d20 and open gaming and it will exist after it...Upstart d20s will come and go...d20 wont last forever."


That viewpoint is elaborated upon here:

"Who is kidding who, we would all like to be able to get a license that lets us keep our content and slap an 'approved for use with Dungeons and Dragons' on our products. Thats what we want. Thats not what we got. We got the OGL/d20 licenses. So we use them. I guarantee every single major creator of OGC would in a heartbeat trade the OGL/d20 licenses for a straight license to use the name and rules of "Dungeons and Dragons."


Now there's certainly an argument to be made here for this viewpoint - but it's one rooted in a traditional way of looking at a market which doesn't hold true when open licenses are prevalent. (In fact, this way of looking at a market is a very shortsighted and reductive one.)

While it would be nice to have a straight license, I certainly wouldn't trade one in exchange for eliminating OGLs because I understand the longterm positive implications of those OGLs for both the industry and individual companies (not to mention the consumer).

But everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

 

[Grazzt]

Wonder how long this one goes before it gets shut down?

 

[NemesisPress]

Isnt it funny how people who complain about rules and restrictions always seem to be the first people to go set up their own rules and restrictions.

Every community has rules, both written and unwritten. Written rules, like those of the Association of OGL Publishers, because they are out in the open and subject to scrutiny from all sides, tend to be designed to protect people's rights rather than abridge them.

Unwritten rules, which also arise between members of large groups, are usually promulgated by those in positions of tenuous power, and are a reflection of their attempts to hold onto that power through a variety of rhetorical strategies that are ideological in nature - appeals, for example, to 'common sense' and historically established ways of doing things. (The last thing someone in this position wants is to be held accountable for is the explicit meaning of one of those rules.)

If you'd like to join the Association and comment on the draft rules, you are certainly welcome.