The GSL in Common Language

[Knightfall]

Fair enough, but I cannot be bothered to read the whole thing (I don't intend to publish) and find it very difficult to get to grips with. So this is exactly what I want AND being amusing is a bonus

Well, it was both informative and funny, yet the funny seeemed to overwhelm the informative part, IMO.

YMMV

 

[CleverNickName]

Awesome. Thanks for breaking it down into English for all of us who aren't fluent in legalspeak.

 

[Wik]

Cool. When did the GSL come out? Must've been recently.

A bit strange that there's an october release date minimum, but that's kind of cool. Once October comes around, we'll see 4e really start to fly.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Thanks Amy. I'm just happy someone broke it down into basic terms. I read a bit of the actual but couldn't be bothered reading and delawyering the whole thing.

I'm never going to publish anything so it doesn't matter to me from that perspective. What it allows others to publish does matter to me though.

I must say that it is a lot more restrictive than the OGL. Obviously WotC (or their laywers at least) thought the OGL was too open.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Very nicely done Amy! Congratulations and thanks - it was both funny and informative by the way.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Awesome. Thanks for breaking it down into English for all of us who aren't fluent in legalspeak.

Seconded!

I think I already got the gist of it, but it's nice if someone more versed in this stuff (be it just English or Legalspeak) confirms it.

 

[Timeboxer]

I think I already got the gist of it, but it's nice if someone more versed in this stuff (be it just English or Legalspeak) confirms it.

Thanks! I'm a software developer, so I spend some time reading a lot of licensing agreements; I figured it might be beneficial in this case.

For the record, I suspect that this license suffers from the same problem as when AT&T added its "you can't say anything to damage our reputation" clause to its Terms of Service -- it's some basic intentions wrapped up in threatening legalese. In a very succinct way, I would probably reword the GSL as follows:

"Look, we really want to share this new system with you but we're afraid of people profiting off of our intellectual property. So, we want to encourage you to use our same core system to make your own different, possibly derivative material that is explicitly not ours and doesn't change the game into a different game."

Thus all the clauses about non-reproduction of stat blocks and levelling rules and so on.

 

[wedgeski]

A thoroughly entertaining post, thank-you.

 

[Pinotage]

Nicely done. That's just what I needed for a quick overview! Thanks!

Pinotage

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Thanks! I'm a software developer, so I spend some time reading a lot of licensing agreements; I figured it might be beneficial in this case.

Astoundingly, I have to do the same. I never expected I'd have to, but there are libraries to use, APIs to interface with, and all this requires you to check that you follow the license agreements for these. Damn it, Jim - I am a doctorprogrammer, not a bricklawyer!