Publisher Opinions of FFE Events?

[Justin Bacon]

Sorry.. I'm not a lawyer. But a quick read over the d20 license, shows everything specifically between you and Wizards of the Coast. As a publisher, I see nothing in there that my lawyer could use to enforce a violation against another company, without bringing in WOTC. And the OGL License doesn't designate what to do in the case of a breach of failure to cure.

Paragraph 13 revokes the license. Once the license has been revoked you would no longer have the right to use the material in question, you would have no choice but to stop selling the material in question.

In practice, that means you'll be pulping the material or facing a lawsuit.

Now, what's really significant is that the license doesn't specify what constitutes a cure of the breach. If you screw up your use of the OGL in the first place, I (if I was a wronged party) could easily make it impossible for you to cure the breach to my satisfcation.

In practice, the OGL is ridiculously simple to use -- particularly if you're not using anything except the SRD. (If you're using other people's products you can run into difficulty because there are a plethora of people in this industry who apparently find it impossible to write a clear and concise designation of open content and product identity. But even then, you can easily stay well within a safety zone.)

Justin Bacon
triad3204@aol.com

 

[Justin Bacon]

The insinuation that a class-act company like Green Ronin is in some way envious of an arrogant, cavalier association of grumpy "fast-moving"* has-beens is absolutely ludicrous.

Although if Green Ronin really did ask someone not to use their material in a compendium, I'm forced to arch my eyebrows at the producers of the Pocket Grimoires.

(Unless, of course, Jim Ward was looking to simply replicate the contents of the Pocket Grimoires. In which case, I think GR would be in a more than legitimate place to say "hey! we did the work! bugger off!")

Justin Bacon
triad3204@aol.com

 

[Pramas]

Although if Green Ronin really did ask someone not to use their material in a compendium, I'm forced to arch my eyebrows at the producers of the Pocket Grimoires.

(Unless, of course, Jim Ward was looking to simply replicate the contents of the Pocket Grimoires. In which case, I think GR would be in a more than legitimate place to say "hey! we did the work! bugger off!")

Guess it's time to nip this in the bud.

Yes, FFE contacted us about their spell compendium. They wanted to use spells from a bunch of our books, including the Pocket Grimoires. They acknowledged that their proposed product was remarkably similar to the grimoires, but they asserted that they'd be complementary (despite the inclusion of the spells from the grimoires!). Now all that is neither here nor there as far as the OGL goes. Here's the full text of the response I sent them.

<<As I'm sure you know, you don't require our permission to use Open Game Content. That's the nature of the license, after all, and we stand by it. If you use our OGC, you won't get any trouble from us as long as you use the license properly.

However, if you are serious about going beyond the bounds of the license, then my preferred arrangement is that you never use our OGC and we'll never use yours. Your company and mine have not exactly seen eye to eye in the past and I think it'd be better all around if we kept our businesses separate.>>

I got a short response from the editor a few days later, ignoring the second paragraph and assuring me that they would indeed use the license correctly. That's the last I heard about it and it was the end of the matter as far as I was concerned. Apparently, Mr. Ward decided not to use our spells after all and then made some unsavory insinuations about my company on his message boards.

I could say a few thing about FFE and Mr. Ward, but I prefer to take the high road in matters such as this. I'm only talking about it in public at all to clear the air. Mr. Ward can dig a hole as deep as he wants for his own company, but he should keep my company out of it.

 

[Cergorach]

Oh man! At this rate his hole will be deep enough to reach china ;-)

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, Drawmij is reminding me more and more of certain other senior members of TSR. (Does anyone remember the Dragon article about D&D not being based in any way on Lord of the Rings, because Lord of the Rings is bad fantasy?) I do hope things can settle out amicably however, the RPG industry is an awfully small boat for the amount of rocking going on.

The Auld Grump, whose game remains 100% FF free....

 

[Psion]

I think Jim Ward was trying to be sarcastic. Another over-reaction, allright. But I can see how he (mis-)interpreted Sangrolu/Psion's post, which he might have thought of being sarcastic too (or is it?).

Not in the least bit. I was genuinely disappointed to see that EL:C&T would be pulped (but saw it coming), as it had some great ideas in it, and I could see them replacing it (or creating new products along the same lines) with some legal OGC.

That said, there is obviously zero hope of any more meaningful communication between myself and Jim Ward, so that is probably the last you will hear of me over there.

 

[Flyspeck23]

Thought so. Guess if your luck runs out you'll take anything as offensive - and please don't take that as an excuse.
Psion, it seems like you're not the only one with "zero hope of any more meaningful communication" with said game company...


That somehow reminds me of a post by baseballfury:

Considering FFE's reputation, I wouldn't blame any d20 publisher that didn't want its name associated with the "fast-moving" ones.

That's bad news for Expeditious Retreat