Spycraft and OGL

[shouit]

I got my copy of Spycraft, which is awesome BTW. And it has the typical OGL agreement, and all that jazz. But on the back cover, it says that it requires the PHB in order to use this book. I also have Wheel of Time as well as Cthulu which don't require the PHB, specifically stating that on the back cover, I believe. I know I am not familiar with OGL, but if you use it, do you must also require the use of PHB?
I went reading through the Spycraft book and it requires the PHB in only a few items. So was this put in so that it can follow the OGL. I know combat is handled slightly differently, I havent read through the book, but this was just a question that was buggin me.

 

[Greatwyrm]

CoC and WoT don't need the requires PHB bit because WotC made them both. WotC doesn't need to abide by the OGL because the OGL gives others permission to use some of their material. WotC never needs to licence their stuff to themselves.

Spycraft on the other hand, has to include that line due to the licenses. If they want to have the d20 logo, they can't include character generation and must include the requires PHB line. Admittedly, you don't need the PHB for much in Spycraft, but they have to put it there.

 

[Florin]

Well, under the soon-to-be-new d20 system trademark license, they would have to put the "requires the use of..." line in the book. So, it has nothing to directly do with the OGL, but rather the usage of the d20 system logo.

 

[Psion]

I got my copy of Spycraft, which is awesome BTW. And it has the typical OGL agreement, and all that jazz. But on the back cover, it says that it requires the PHB in order to use this book. I also have Wheel of Time as well as Cthulu which don't require the PHB, specifically stating that on the back cover, I believe. I know I am not familiar with OGL, but if you use it, do you must also require the use of PHB?

CoC and WoT are put out by WotC. Other publishers can use the d20 trademark and system licenses which are free, but dictates (amongst other things) that the publisher not try to do certain things with their product and that they indicate the need for the 3e PH on the cover. Spycraft must operate under these rules as it is not published by WotC.

However, WotC owns all of the intellectual property assoaciated with the d20 system. They are under NO obligation whatsoever to utilize the d20 system and trademark licenses for their own stuff. Thus they can include stuff like the XP table and a full description of how to advance characters, and you really don't need the PH to use those books.