Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="indemnity" data-source="post: 6880198" data-attributes="member: 6671234">I am an actual patent attorney with a science PhD who has also worked on copyright issues and even some ip disputes for games.  However, I am not your attorney.A lot of your questions are too vague and the answers are product specific.  Happy for you to PM me if you have longer questions.You can refer to whatever you want.  Copyrighted works are not academic and preferably not referenced in any way.  "Quoting" in a commercial work is copyright violation regardless of attribution (excluding works of review or commentaries).Titles are not covered by copyright.  In any text you create, you can refer to any title, e.g. Harry Potter Book 1, pXX.   A non-DM's guild publisher can write somethings such as "using the Sailor background as describe in the D&D Players' Handbook, page XX."You cannot attempt to pass off your work as being supported by WoTC.  You cannot include any text/trademarks owned by WoTC.Yes and no.  Depends on the product, the audience and if it is sold for money.Yes, if you want to create a D&D product.  The OGL is about protecting the D&D brand.  It allows the community to create products using the resources it allows.No, if you want to create material for another role playing game (that looks similar to D&D but is instead called medieval fantasy role playing game).  Other rulesets exist, such as GURPS, Storyteller, et al.  Game rules are practically unenforceable due to The Doctrine of Merger.  Basically, if a rule (such as characters with stats and numerical abilities) exists and can only be applied in a limited set, it applies to all such sets.  There are so many copyright-free games that rules/mechanics are open to all.  As an example, look at any digital RPG - none include the OGL despite using similar mechanics.Finally, if you are not widely distributing the product, or making tons of cash, you probably won't get found.  Each infrigement notice costs WoTC money and relationships so they usually don't bother the small stuff.Again, you cannot include another persons work, then get away by putting a reference at the end.  In a printed work you could put all OGL content in a shaded break-out box with the source name at the bottom.  Or you can just stick a byline in the document identifier and not mention it anywhere else.In general, don't include any references to copywritten works if not required.  You might think it feels unfair, however, it may allow others to partially claim your work as derivative.  You must pretend you created the work in a vacuum.  It may also get you found by automated content searching bots and wrongly issued an infringement.If you must mention products/names, look at how the PHB includes a "books we love" section.It is very unlike academia.  See this webpage for an example of OGL inclusion<a href="http://www.5esrd.com/legal-information" target="_blank">http://www.5esrd.com/legal-information</a>The OGL includes specific text on how it is to be included.  I suggest you look at how a similar product incorporates it.A printed work may have a small attribution in very small text.  It can be as short as a by line on the inside info page (along with LoC, ISBN, your copyright notice, etc)A digital product such as a game or app may include the notice on a developer webpage, a product disclosure statement or a teeny tiny link a dozen links deep.</blockquote>

Verification