Ryan Dancey -- Hasbro Cannot Deauthorize OGL

I reached out to the architect of the original Open Gaming License, former VP of Wizard of the Coast, Ryan Dancey, and asked his opinion about the current plan by WotC to 'deauthorize' the current OGL in favour of a new one.

He responded as follows:

Yeah my public opinion is that Hasbro does not have the power to deauthorize a version of the OGL. If that had been a power that we wanted to reserve for Hasbro, we would have enumerated it in the license. I am on record numerous places in email and blogs and interviews saying that the license could never be revoked.

Ryan also maintains the Open Gaming Foundation.

As has been noted previously, even WotC in its own OGL FAQ did not believe at the time that the licence could be revoked.

7. Can't Wizards of the Coast change the License in a way that I wouldn't like?

Yes, it could. However, the License already defines what will happen to content that has been previously distributed using an earlier version, in Section 9. As a result, even if Wizards made a change you disagreed with, you could continue to use an earlier, acceptable version at your option. In other words, there's no reason for Wizards to ever make a change that the community of people using the Open Gaming License would object to, because the community would just ignore the change anyway.

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[RyanD]

@RyanD did you write the OGL 1.0? Did a lawyer write it? Or did you write it and a lawyer reviewed/edited it?

it was drafted by the in house counsel with my input and participation.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

? This is relevant to my interests.

I mean, there are a lot of possible interpretations, but the "soon" is interesting. The "shut up" tone is interesting too.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

? This is relevant to my interests.

on twitter someone asked for people to stop saying she may be unemployed soon and suggested everyone stop bugging piazo employees... people read between the lines (or maybe tea leaves) to figure out why,

 

[darjr]

it was drafted by the in house counsel with my input and participation.

Thank you!

Another question?
Did drafts go back and forth between 3pp? And if so were significant changes made? Or did most of the details get hashed out before it was written?

Also where contracts involved at all?

 

[bedir than]

The "shut up" tone is interesting too.

That's probably a response to the extraordinarily abusive nature of the fandom at this time. There have been threats of violence towards people who make games. It's an absurd response. We are blessed with actual moderators here.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That's probably a response to the extraordinarily abusive nature of the fandom at this time. There have been threats of violence towards people who make games. It's an absurd response. We are blessed with actual moderators here.

Ugh twonks. I shouldn't be surprised I guess. I assumed people were being nice to Paizo, but there's always someone.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

That's probably a response to the extraordinarily abusive nature of the fandom at this time. There have been threats of violence towards people who make games. It's an absurd response. We are blessed with actual moderators here.

yup... I hope we don't get tot eh point where this escalates to WORSE

 

[Reynard]

That's probably a response to the extraordinarily abusive nature of the fandom at this time. There have been threats of violence towards people who make games. It's an absurd response. We are blessed with actual moderators here.

Remember when game journalists got death and rape threats for daring to criticize AAA video games?

Welcome to the internet.

 

[Knuffeldraak]

This rumor mill has already had a chilling effect on third-party publishers I know personally. Suffice it to say the bullying train is going according to plan.

Well, as numerous sources stated, the threshold for this Royalty Fee only applies if you make 750k or more in a year. Of which there really are not a lot (less than 20 in total). And even then, the fee is only deducted from the money you make above this threshold, not in its entirity 'as soon as'. Anyone that makes between 50K and 750K in a year simply just needs to declare their profits, but not pay a fee.

Also, they did confirm that WOTC partners and other associates already having agreed-to terms (such as VTT hosts like Roll20 and FantasyGrounds), as well as retailers/sellers of merchandise, do not fall under the new OGL.

So this feels much more like a (semi-) targetted attack at the big fish earning from WOTC's product like MCDM and Critical Roll, rather than the grand scope of truly 'anyone' trying to make money by using D&D (or its variants thereof).

 

[Knuffeldraak]

(accidental double-post.)