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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[Tazawa]

I'm not sure 22 years of open content is 'bad faith'

Attempting to revoke an agreement after 22 years, by changing your interpretation of a key clause, could certainly be considered bad faith.

It would make most rational people think twice about entering into any new agreement with you.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Please review Here: Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong about the OGL and SRD. Clearing up confusion.

Seems a lawyer says the legal definition of "perpetual" dos not mean the same as the dictionary. Seems he might be right, but I'm not enough of a legal expert to be sure.

yeah this is my issue with law and rules... words either use there definitions or the don't... and sometimes people want to have there cake and eat it too

 

[FoolishFrost]

yeah this is my issue with law and rules... words either use there definitions or the don't... and sometimes people want to have there cake and eat it too

Legalese is the ORIGINAL thieves cant.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Attempting to revoke an agreement after 22 years, by changing your interpretation of a key clause, could certainly be considered bad faith.

It would make most rational people think twice about entering into any new agreement with you.

Especially when folks built their entire businesses on the current agreement and would be bankrupted by the new one.


WotC benifited from OGL by making their game D&D the industry standard, like Linux/Andriod is.

 

[mamba]

I mean, the claim it sold better than 3.x came from WotC, who I think might know how their products sold....

that claim came when, a month or so in ? It did sell better than 3.x in the beginning, that did not last long though. I was dumped faster than any other edition, and that was not because sales were so great

 

[Greg Benage]

that claim came when, a month or so in ? It did sell better than 3.x in the beginning, that did not last long though. I was dumped faster than any other edition, and that was not because sales were so great

What was the timeline on 4e? Released in 2008, 5e in 2014. When was Essentials? And did someone mention they had stopped supporting it by 2012?

 

[mamba]

From a Hasbro exec's position, I would personally take great umbrage at Tactical Adventures and Solasta under the OGL. It hasn't exactly been a smash hit -- but Solasta is a game that if I were at WotC, I would see that as using MY DAMN IP FOR FREE -- and I would not be okay with that if I were at WotC.

well, Solasta has a license, so there is no need for that

 

[GMforPowergamers]

that claim came when, a month or so in ? It did sell better than 3.x in the beginning, that did not last long though. I was dumped faster than any other edition, and that was not because sales were so great

yeah that's your spin. you don't have the numbers, I don't have the numbers. We have that 3.5 out sold 3, 4 out sold 3.5 and 5 out sold 4. so with this (limited) information we can say every edition out sold the one before it.

 

[payn]

it's part of the big shrug of "nobody can be sure" becuse you would need to take full game store data (and my understanding is that IVC isn't all stores) amazon/online orders the sub for 4e and the sub for PF... and guess who isn't shareing... both companies.

Which is the reason I dont think folks should say "they told us...." but that doesnt stop them.

I do know that I only bought my PF1 CRB at an FLGS. Everything else (holy f ton batman I have a lot of PF stuff) came from Paizo direct.

 

[payn]

yeah that's your spin. you don't have the numbers, I don't have the numbers. We have that 3.5 out sold 3, 4 out sold 3.5 and 5 out sold 4. so with this (limited) information we can say every edition out sold the one before it.

To be fair nobody seems to have the "4E out sold 3E" quote from WotC either. I mean, I have looked and cant find it. Every time I ask for folks to provide it, they vanish. A day later they post it again in another thread.