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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pramas" data-source="post: 3027435" data-attributes="member: 995">If a game uses the OGL, it's already open. What you seem to be talking about is companies giving away their rules and trademarks for free. That is something else entirely. People often get confused on this point, thinking that companies that want to control their own trademarks are somehow not working in the spirit of the OGL. It is good to remind them then of the following terms from the Open Game License itself:"7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use any Product Identity, including as an indication as to compatibility, except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of each element of that Product Identity. You agree not to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark or Registered Trademark in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark or Registered Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in Open Game Content does not constitute a challenge to the ownership of that Product Identity. The owner of any Product Identity used in Open Game Content shall retain all rights, title and interest in and to that Product Identity."This is not an optional clause, this is a major point of the OGL. This means that if you want to publish something compatible with Arcana Unearthed, you can just using the OGL, but if you want to advertise as AU compatible you MUST get Malhavoc's permission. No one is stopping you from being as creative as you want with the rules, but if you want to benefit from the brand that Malhavoc has created, you need their OK.Green Ronin has dealt with this issue in a couple of different ways. For Mutants & Masterminds we created the M&M Superlink logo. This is free but you do have to go through an approvals process so we can make sure you are using the OGL correctly and not violating our trademarks or Product Identity. For True20 we are licensing out the actual True20 logo but it's going to be a paid license (except for the winners of our setting search). Terms of that will be going up shortly on <a href="http://www.true20.com" target="_blank">www.true20.com</a>. Both of these arrangements are fully in keeping with the terms of the OGL.</blockquote>

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