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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 9859623" data-attributes="member: 907">The one actual lawyer I recall weighing in, Devin &quot;Legal Eagle&quot; Stone, said he believed Wizards likely had the right to pull the OGL. The main reason was that it used the word &quot;perpetual&quot; rather than &quot;irrevocable&quot;, and &quot;perpetual&quot; generally means &quot;until further notice&quot; rather than &quot;forever&quot; in legalese.I don't know if he was aware that at the time the OGL was originally promoted, representatives of Wizards of the Coast (particularly Ryan Dancey) were saying &quot;Look, it's safe, it's intended to last forever&quot;, nor do I know if that would actually carry any weight in a court of law.TSR's lawsuit against GDW (not sure if they also sued Gygax personally) over Dangerous Journeys/Mythus. Dangerous Journeys was an RPG written by Gary Gygax, and it took immense care to avoid anything even close to D&amp;D vocabulary, to the point of having &quot;Physical Muscular Power&quot; rather than &quot;Strength&quot; and &quot;Dweomercraefters&quot; rather than wizards/magic-users. It was also primarily skill-based rather than class/level-based. TSR still sued them, arguing things like &quot;the First Aid K/S Area is derivative of the Cure Light Wounds spell in AD&amp;D&quot;. The game clearly wasn't derivative of AD&amp;D, and they went after Gygax for purely vindictive reasons. The case never got tried in court because TSR could out-lawyer GDW so it ended with a settlement that saw TSR acquire the game and all the stock.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 9859623, member: 907"] The one actual lawyer I recall weighing in, Devin "Legal Eagle" Stone, said he believed Wizards likely had the right to pull the OGL. The main reason was that it used the word "perpetual" rather than "irrevocable", and "perpetual" generally means "until further notice" rather than "forever" in legalese. I don't know if he was aware that at the time the OGL was originally promoted, representatives of Wizards of the Coast (particularly Ryan Dancey) were saying "Look, it's safe, it's intended to last forever", nor do I know if that would actually carry any weight in a court of law. TSR's lawsuit against GDW (not sure if they also sued Gygax personally) over Dangerous Journeys/Mythus. Dangerous Journeys was an RPG written by Gary Gygax, and it took immense care to avoid anything even close to D&D vocabulary, to the point of having "Physical Muscular Power" rather than "Strength" and "Dweomercraefters" rather than wizards/magic-users. It was also primarily skill-based rather than class/level-based. TSR still sued them, arguing things like "the First Aid K/S Area is derivative of the Cure Light Wounds spell in AD&D". The game clearly wasn't derivative of AD&D, and they went after Gygax for purely vindictive reasons. The case never got tried in court because TSR could out-lawyer GDW so it ended with a settlement that saw TSR acquire the game and all the stock. [/QUOTE]

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