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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GDGD" data-source="post: 8898728" data-attributes="member: 7038631">I'd love to believe that, but the law is never truly settled. That's both the benefit and the problem with common law: lawyers can always find some new angle to argue, and a new precedent can suddenly change what is and isn't allowed. Look at Disney. There's a perpetual battle by their legal team to extend the copyright on Mickey Mouse, even though by law it's expired several times. (I understand that's a very different issue, just illustrating how mercurial the law can be, especially when it impacts corporate interests).My question is, does it matter? Let's say Hasbro walks back everything and recommits to OGL 1.0a. Does everything go back to normal? My guess is no. The industry understands now that they've all been working in the shadow of an existential threat. I'd like to believe we can build some sort of legal Maginot Line to stop this sort of thing from ever happening again, but I don't think it's possible. The OGL, in any form, has been proven by the whims of Hasbro executives to be the sword of Damocles. I'm very sure that ORC will become the new industry standard, and the marching order for every 3PP now is to disentangle themselves from anything OGL as quickly as possible.Prediction #2, since I'm prognosticating, is that this will prove a watershed moment. The end result will be that TTRPGs are dominated by a few truly open source core rulesets. WOTC will be just one publisher of many contributing material compatible with these open source mechanics and they'll have no power or advantage or control over anyone else. Sort of like how no one owns the patent on the internal combustion engine. It creates a truly competitive industry where various auto manufacturers compete to offer the best vehicle at any given price point, each with its own features and benefits, but always developing and improving. I can very much see the TTRPG industry heading in that direction, starting now. Or starting a few days ago, more specifically.</blockquote>

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