Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark CMG" data-source="post: 2470258" data-attributes="member: 10479">Your first sentence is unclear.  Are you claiming that a stat block format is "owned" by WotC or that the OGL is "owned" by them?  Remember, you can't own everything in a book not covered by the OGL if it wasn't yours to own in the first place and you can't contribute something to the pool of OGC if it wasn't yours to contribute.  It may very well come down to an issue of ownership but I doubt that's as clear an issue as you seem to be inferring.  But I am getting ahead of myself as there is more to deal with than just that.Regarding the OGL: Unless it *is* a direct contravention of the license, then it *is not* against the license.  The license is a contract and that's how contracts work.  WotC also has the ability to change the license if they feel it doesn't cover something they want covered.  The fact that they have done so in the past, and have not done so recently, is a clear indication that they are content with what the license currently covers.  It's also a situation they will have to live with unless and until they change it, and those changes only apply to those who choose to utilize the newer license or materials released under the newer license.Regarding Copyright: No notice needs to be given for something to be considered under copyright, at the front of a book or in someone's diary or anywhere; as soon as someone writes something it is considered their under their copyright, barring any agreements they may have previously made, such as those dictates of an employee/employer relationship, work for hire, etc.  But all this assumes that the something being protected is something that *can be* protected in the first place.So, getting back to what you were assuming/claiming...  Assuming that WotC has given their "blessing" to another company (such as Paizo) to use something they wish to withhold from anyone else is intuitively counter to everything else they do, which is for them to normally and legally dot the I's and cross the T's to the best of their multi-million dollar, team-of-corporate-lawyers ability.  WotC (Hasbro) and Paizo are two separate companies and they do not work strictly by understandings despite how it may appear.  If they want something to have a legal standing they are more than capable of handling it properly.Legally, and I am not a lawyer but, it would appear that IF they had wished this style of statistics dissemination to be kept to themself and a select group of users they would have, and should have, taken the legal steps to protect it, which they apparently have not.I could assume that WotC wants no one to to use stat blocks at all, since they don't have any in the SRD but that seems not to have been the case for the last five years.  I could assume that WotC doesn't want anyone to have any information in tables that separated information in color or shades of grey, since they do so in their books but it isn't in the SRD but that seems not to have been the case for the last five years, as well.Again, they haven't said they don't want anyone else to use that format, publicly, legally, or elsewise.  It's not in their best interest for them to maintain it as proprietary, even if they could.  It's not against anything in the OGL, as near as I can tell, for someone else to use it or a similar format.  I can't see why they would want to prevent it.If I was interested in using that particular format I would go right ahead and do so, but I'd also adjust a few things like making sure to show how an Armor Class breaks down, mentioning the Scent feat up near the top when a creature or NPC had it, etc.</blockquote>

Verification