They came away with a whopper of a settlement... that's a win by all but the narrowest of definitions.
Well, David Kenzer is an intellectual property attorney and there was, by all accounts, a clear contractual breach, so WotC was probably very happy to settle for something that wasn't a large amount of cash.
In point of fact, the "clear contractual breach" is far from clear. For instance, Greenberg v. National Geographic was a case with extremely similar circumstances (i.e. National Geographic released a CD-ROM compilation of old issues, and were sued by a photographer whose photographs they'd only licensed to use in the initial publication of their magazines), and after a circuitous round of cases in multiple courts, eventually resulted in a win for National Geographic.
My understanding of the Kenzer case is that the agreement they had with TSR/WotC specifically excluded any form of reprints, so it wasn't a case of WotC relying on the Greenberg precedent, but simply overlooking the fact that they had (in Kenzer's case specifically) contractually agreed not to do what they did.
My understanding was that the case hinged on TSR/WotC having first-publication rights only, not that it specifically excluded reprints per se (which sounds like two different ways of saying the same thing, but actually isn't). Likewise, given how long it took to get a ruling in Greenberg, it wouldn't have been precedent at that point; I brought it up only to point out that while David Kenzer likely (and understandably) thought he had a slam-dunk of a case, the reality (had it gone to court) might have turned out very differently.
(Dungeons & Dragons)
Rulebook featuring "high magic" options, including a host of new spells.
