D&D 5E So, 5e OGL

[spectacle]

Just because a lawyer has said that the law is on your side, it doesn't mean you can't be sued, and lawsuits are expensive whether you win or lose. An OGL for 5e would make it clear that WOTC approves of 3rd party products, nearly eliminating that worry.

 

[Jester David]

I think any lawyer worth having would need a lot more time for research. They'd have to review any time in the intervening years since the inception of the OGL that WotC has even flexed their muscles (sent a C&D) and anything said by WotC employees regarding the OGL, the GSL, and particularly reasons behind moving away from the OGL to the GSL (for therein lies some idea of the thought process behind what they feel they are protecting). I can't imagine any firm taking the chance of giving slipshod legal advice that might run someone afoul of Hasbro, so we're talking about dozens of hours, at the least, IMO.

A lot of the legwork would be done by a paralegal, which is less costly. There are also a number of websites out there that can speed up legal research. If you know where to search, which a contract/IP lawyer would, research can go quite quickly.

 

[Mark CMG]

A lot of the legwork would be done by a paralegal, which is less costly.

I was already figuring on that, for sure.

There are also a number of websites out there that can speed up legal research.

Yup, but without context it means little to someone who hasn't been following all the circumstances for a decade and a half.

If you know where to search, which a contract/IP lawyer would, research can go quite quickly.

Research of the rulings and filings but little else, and without the context those filings and rulings would not put a lawyer in a position to give sound advice. Bottom line is, if a lawyer only looked at this for a dozen hours or less, they likely tell you to not venture into publishing anything intimated to be compatible with 5E. Then they'd probably fill out the rest of the hour they were adding onto the the bill by asking you to explain what a displacer beast is.

 

[MoonSong]

Maybe someone should start a kickstarter to join a bunch of small publishers to get money to pay to the guy who wrote KoK to give legal advisory and even representation in case of problems, you know the guy who is an IP law attorney and has lots of experience in the various RPG lawsuits over the years.

 

[darjr]

We have a resident lawer who has actually done this. Wonder if he'd care to give a clue by four.

 

[SkidAce]

How much do you think a lawyer would cost for something like this? Would it really run into a thousand dollars?

My divorce lawyer did a standard...boilerplate no contest, everybody agreed to the details, no research needed divorce paperwork and it cost 1,200 dollars.

Just saying...

 

[prosfilaes]

Then they'd probably fill out the rest of the hour they were adding onto the the bill by asking you to explain what a displacer beast is.

I don't if this is why you chose it, but a lawyer might well recommend that you don't touch the displacer beast at all, given how it's a copy of A. E. van Vogt's coeurl from The Voyage of the Space Beagle. Sure, it's been used for 40 years by D&D, but to be entirely clear and safe... Same thing with the cubic gate (i.e. the Carnelian Cube). "Don't use that" is an answer that won't get your client sued.

 

[Mark CMG]

My divorce lawyer did a standard...boilerplate no contest, everybody agreed to the details, no research needed divorce paperwork and it cost 1,200 dollars.

Just saying...

Same for one of mine, though it was 30 years ago, and it cost a meager $500. I say "one of mine" even though I have only been married the once because I hope someday, fingers crossed, to meet the wrong woman.

 

[Mark CMG]

I don't if this is why you chose it, (. . .)

Precisely. To illustrate that given the limited amount of time spent on research, the less-than-adequate (in this example) lawyer would show his hand by mentioning something or saying something that shows he has done some research but not enough.

 

[Hussar]

Here in less litigious Canada, a cheap copyright lawyer will go for $100 for the first hour, and jump in price to $200-300 for following hours.
Given they need to research D&D and familiarize themselves with both the license and related terms, as well as double check past rulings (for games), that'll be a couple hours talking (two visits and all) and a couple researching. $700 ballpark. Likely more.

Could you afford to just lose $700? Right now, this month, $700. Gone. For the opportunity to *maybe* make some money back.

Hrm, I'm going to publish a book/product that's going to take about 100 man hours to create (at a very, very low minimum). That's an investment of about 5000 dollars right there just for my time. Never minding printing costs, distribution, advertising, whatnot. I mean, I just backed Primeval Thule for 5e. This is a book that's an update of a product that's been done for Pathfinder and 4e already - so, most of it is already written. All that needed to be done was fix stat blocks and maybe do some shifting around in the adventures.

They asked for 15 000 dollars for that product.

So, yeah, dropping 700 dollars is a pretty small investment compared to what I'm going to invest in my product. And, note, once I've done it once, I hopefully won't need to talk to a lawyer again.