Viral nature of Section 15

[Roger]

I'm sure this has come up before and I'm sure it'll come up again; maybe this time around we can get to something like a definitive answer that we can provide to people forevermore hereafter.

Let's say I've got Product A that references Products B, C, and D in its Section 15. Let's say Product B references Products E and F in its Section 15. Let's also say that, for whatever reason, Product A (which references Product B) doesn't list E or F in its Section 15.

Now I want to release Product X that I just wrote that uses some content from Product A.

In my Section 15 in Product X, should I reference:

1) Product A.
2) Products A, B, C, and D.
3) Products A, B, C, D, E, and F.
4) Something else.

(I have my own opinion, but I'm interested to hear what other folks have.)

(Also, if this is explicitly addressed in anything official from WotC or the OGF or anything like that, please provide a citation if you can.)


Cheers,
Roger

 

[Vigilance]

The answer is 3.

You have to list the full Section 15 of every product you reference.

You don't have to list a book more than once though. So if the MSRD is in the Section 15 of 3 products you reference, you only need to list it once.

 

[Cassandra]

This is tricky, though, because the people who wrote product A evidently made an error.

Let's also say that, for whatever reason, Product A (which references Product B) doesn't list E or F in its Section 15.

Therefore the publisher of Product X may have no way of knowing that E and F are involved at all. Assuming only the information from Product A to work with, I believe the publisher of Product X is required to reference A, B, C and D but not E and F. Companies who use material from Product A in good faith do not have the responsibility to be aware of and correct the mistake in its Section 15. (If they become aware of the mistake, that might be different.)

So I would say #4 is correct - because besides A, B, C, and D the section 15 also needs to include X. Also, one of those references better be to the SRD, or someone made a really major mistake somewhere!

(And you're right, I'm sure this was discussed before. However, the link to the OGF list archives appears to have become invalid when the mailing list itself was shut down so there seems to be no way to access the wisdom of the ages.)

 

[Planesdragon]

I'm sure this has come up before and I'm sure it'll come up again; maybe this time around we can get to something like a definitive answer that we can provide to people forevermore hereafter

....

Now I want to release Product X that I just wrote that uses some content from Product A.

In my Section 15 in Product X, should I reference:

Everything in Product A's Section 15, plus Product X's copyright statement, unless Product A's publisher otherwise told you what the correct COPYRIGHT NOTICE is for the OGC that you are using.

If you are contacted by a third party -- i.e., not the publisher of Product A -- who claims that you need to put their work's COPYRIGHT NOTICE in your §15, check with A's publisher. You have no way of knowing if the Third Party actually has a claim against A's publisher. The third party could be pulling a scam. The Third Party could have simply had identical design ideas as A's publisher.

The relevant part of the OGL, §6 doesn't tell you that you need to put in the copyright notice of every single work that contains OGC that could be what you derived from. It says you need to update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing. Regardless if A should have included something it didn't, you need to copy what's in A unless A's publisher tells you otherwise.

 

[Morrus]

I'm sure this has come up before and I'm sure it'll come up again;

It certainly has!

Let's say I've got Product A that references Products B, C, and D in its Section 15. Let's say Product B references Products E and F in its Section 15. Let's also say that, for whatever reason, Product A (which references Product B) doesn't list E or F in its Section 15.

Now I want to release Product X that I just wrote that uses some content from Product A.

In my Section 15 in Product X, should I reference:

1) Product A.
2) Products A, B, C, and D.
3) Products A, B, C, D, E, and F.
4) Something else.

(I have my own opinion, but I'm interested to hear what other folks have.)

(Also, if this is explicitly addressed in anything official from WotC or the OGF or anything like that, please provide a citation if you can.)

You list everything. You copy the s15 of any product you're referencing; that product will already have copied the s15 of any products it is referencing.

So you write your product X, which uses material from A. You s15 will be composed of A's s15 plus the copyright statement for X itself. By definition, A's s15 will already include B, C, and D's, and B already includes E and F, so by copying A's s15 you are meeting the requirements.

As for cites - ell there's the actual license which is very clear:

[bq]6.Notice of License Copyright: You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing, and You must add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder's name to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you Distribute.[/bq]

Or WotC's OGL FAQ:

[bq]Q: What is the COPYRIGHT NOTICE?

A: The COPYRIGHT NOTICE is a specific part of the License itself, as opposed to a general copyright notice that might appear elsewhere in a given work. The License requires that you combine all the COPYRIGHT NOTICE sections of each Open Game License you are extracting or deriving Open Game Content from, and include the consolidated notice with the copy of the Open Game License you will be distributing.

This mechanism is the way that proper credit is retained for each person who contributed some work to the Open Gaming community. No matter how small the contribution, each and every COPYRIGHT NOTICE propagates forward.[/bq]

 

[Roger]

Thanks, everyone. That's pretty much what I thought, and what I've been doing.



Cheers,
Roger