The OGL 1.1 is not an Open License

[Greg Benage]

Does that mean if I publish anything under non-commercial, anyone can take it and publish it under commercial and benefit from that?

No, they can only use it under the same terms as you.

 

[pemerton]

It's cool, but then I'm still not clear what I was incorrect about. The commercial license most definitely isn't open: only Wizards decides who can use your stuff. I never suggested otherwise, I don't think.

You're referring to this, aren't you? (XII.B of Commercial):

You own the new and original content You create. You agree to give Us a nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable,
worldwide, sub-licensable, royalty-free license to use that content for any purpose.​

And what you've posted about it is correct, as best I can tell. Also @Morrus given he asked the original question.

 

[merchantsteve]

If this OGL 1.1 goes into effect, Expect a large number of Brick and Mortar Game Stores to become insolvent.
Plain and simple, most likely, over 50% of their RPG inventory will become illegal to sell. An owner will lose all the money paid to fill the shelves.
To make matters worse, loss of revenue will make it near-impossible to restock when a publisher prints new product without the OGL.
So... Hasbro will drastically reduce the number of stores that would order their product which will backfire on their revenue because they decided to remove competition.

 

[merchantsteve]

But then, the revenue reporting and royalties only apply to people making over $50,000 and $750,000 respectively. Did any retroclone fall into that category until recently?

Revenue... not profit... This is KEY - and horrible because that forces a price spiral upwards to cover the new costs associated with royalty payments and accounting overhead.

Also, under the terms of the license, those numbers can be modified at any time with a 30-day notice. If WoTC is not meeting their revenue goal, they have allowed themselves to lower the 750K revenue threshold to any value they want.

 

[pemerton]

Plain and simple, most likely, over 50% of their RPG inventory will become illegal to sell.

That's a strong claim. Those booksellers aren't and never were parties to any licence from WotC. The works they're selling are not pirated or otherwise unlawful copies of anything - they were all produced under licence.

 

[Rainynights]

I suspect there’ll be a black market of character builders that are totally not for 1D&D, wink wink, nudge nudge. But that’s only my suspicion

That or an explosion in popularity of character sheet apps that allow you to make your own templates for any game so that you can weasel your way around the limitations

 

[mamba]

If this OGL 1.1 goes into effect, Expect a large number of Brick and Mortar Game Stores to become insolvent.
Plain and simple, most likely, over 50% of their RPG inventory will become illegal to sell.

No, it simply means there will be no new releases based on OGL 1.0a, everything out there stays legal

 

[damiller]

wrong thread sorry

 

[Xyxox]

No, it simply means there will be no new releases based on OGL 1.0a, everything out there stays legal

Maybe, but I doubt it. I think they want anything and everything 5E pulled from the market and will use threat of suit to accomplish it.

 

[ECMO3]

Maybe, but I doubt it. I think they want anything and everything 5E pulled from the market and will use threat of suit to accomplish it.

At this point I think it is clear that is going to fail. They may remove a significant portion of 5E going forward but some publishers are going to continue to operate and publish. I believe Paizo has already said they are going to force WOTC to take them to court.

They will need to go beyond the threat of suit to do this, they will need to actually sue and win.