So what DOES 1.1 allow?

[bedir than]

unenlightened, Nirvana-listening, plaid-wearing denizens of that time.

We were enlightened, everyone just called it angst and then we gave up

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The problem is that they’re trying at the same time to revoke a license they had previously offered, under the pretense of being irrevocable, on which a significant portion of the RPG industry has since been built and now relies.

I don't think it's fair to call it a pretense.

What WotC are doing, legally, with the deauthorization, is a novel technique. It was not something to be foreseen except by particularly canny lawyers (who you don't typically find as in-house counsel).

It took 20 years for anyone to even figure out a possible way to break it. And we don't even know if that's succeeded. I don't think it'll even go to court at this point. WotC have been asserting that it deauthorizes the previous licence, and say, in the comments, that it does, but does it? It seems more like you have to accept OGL 1.1 before that kicks in, and if that's true, this is opt-in, and the OGL 1.0a is not broken.

So it's kind of worse in a way, in that, they might not even be successful in their evil plan, they just want to present it as a fait accompli and have you sign it before you can think too hard. It is alleged by Griffon's Saddlebag that basically no-one did that though - which would be unsurprising.

 

[blackflame]

They (Wizards) have the power to do this and I can understand them doing it to some extent (IP protection is neccessary even against smaller creators as evidence of laxity in this regard could be used in the courts to defend infractions prepetrated by more formidable competitors-In other words you need to keep an eye on the little fish so that the sharks can't eat you alive).

That being said, I would hope for their sake that Wizards wield this new weapon with a very light touch. Larger, more powerful companies than them have taken the goodwill of the fan community for granted and been harshly punished for it. Wizards benefits massively from small (and not so small) creator generated content. It's the best form of free advertsing you can get. If they start to trample all those seemingly insignificant people underfoot they may be opening the way for a competitor to step in and take over.

D&D has become more successful and lucrative in recent times than many of us could have dreamed of. Let's hope Wizards do not forget that they didn't achieve this success all on their own-And that power can be fleeting-Particularly when partnered with hubris. Time will tell

 

[kenada]

What WotC are doing, legally, with the deauthorization, is a novel technique. It was not something to be foreseen except by particularly canny lawyers (who you don't typically find as in-house counsel).

I suggested the de-authorization approach back in December. I had guessed WotC would wait and only target the 6e SRD, so I was wrong about that, but if attacking the language of the original license was obvious to me as a non-lawyer, I can only assume it would be even more so to actual lawyers.