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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 9636556" data-attributes="member: 8461">I just picked up Far Distant Future's latest publication (released earlier today), <a href="https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/518724/Awesome-Ancestries-TwotoOne-Vol-4--Athamaru?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Awesome Ancestries: Two-to-One, Vol. 4 - Athamaru</a> (affiliate link) for PF1, and I'm rather intrigued by what's going on here.Now, as the product's title makes clear, this is a back-conversion, taking PF2's <a href="https://2e.aonprd.com/Ancestries.aspx?ID=71" target="_blank">athamaru</a> race and releasing it under the PF1 rules. It's slightly unusual in that most of the Awesome Ancestries line of products have included several different races; only two before this have presented a single race, and each time it was an original one, not a conversion. So why deviate from that now?My guess (and I want to stress that this is just a guess) is that this product is something of an experiment, and so the author is keeping it limited to a single race so that if he has to pull the product due to Paizo making an objection, there won't be any collateral damage (in terms of other conversions).But I've buried the lede long enough, so I'll come out and say what's going on here that struck me as unusual:This is an OGL product, but the athamaru are from Paizo's Howl of the Wild, which is a PF2 Remastered (i.e. ORC License) book.In other words, this is an OGL iteration of something that was (only) released under the ORC.Now, the question of whether or not the author has overstepped what one or both of those licenses allow is a very complicated one, and depends in large part on what's stated to be Open Game Content, Product Identity, Reserved Material, and Expressly Licensed Material. Looking at the book's declarations, it says for the OGL:[spoiler]Open Content: Subject to designation as Product Identity (see below), all content of this work is Open Content. No portion of this work other than the material designated as Open Content may be reproduced in any form without written permission.Product Identity: The following items are hereby identified as Product Identity, as defined in the Open Game License 1.0a, Section 1(e), and are not Open Content: Far Distant Future Publishing, the Far Distant Future logo, Awesome Ancestries (as a product line), as well as all trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names, dialogue, plots, story lines, locations, characters, artworks, and trade dress, but excluding any content that is Product Identity of Paizo Publishing, Inc. (Elements that have previously been designated as Open Content are not included in this declaration.)Reference in non-Open Content (thus not covered by the Open Game License) in this work to content owned by others is not a challenge to their ownership and is used under Fair Use.[/spoiler]Whereas for the ORC License it says:[spoiler]Attribution: This product incorporates game elements from the following work.Pathfinder Howl of the Wild. © 2024 Paizo Inc. Authors: Kate Baker, Joshua Birdsong, Rigby Bendele, Chris Bissette, Jeremy Blum, Logan Bonner, Dan Cascone, James Case, Jessica Catalan, Brite Cheney, Rue Dickey, Caryn DiMarco, Matthew Fu, Leo Glass, Steven Hammond, Patrick Hurley, Michelle Y. Kim, Dustin Knight, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Christiana Lewis, Jessie “Aki” Lo, Luis Loza, Letterio Mammoliti, Jonathan “Ryomasa” Mendoza, Quinn Murphy, Dave Nelson, Mikhail Rekun, Kai Revius, Ember Rose, Simone D. Sallé, Michael Sayre, Shay Snow, Levi Steadman, Kyle Tam, Ruvaid Virk, and Andrew White.Reserved Material: Reserved Material elements in this product include all elements designated as Reserved Material under the ORC License. To avoid confusion, such items include: All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper nouns (characters, deities, locations, etc., as well as all adjectives, names, titles, and descriptive terms derived from proper nouns), artworks, characters, dialogue, locations, organizations, plots, storylines, and trade dress.Expressly Designated Licensed Material: This product contains no Expressly Designated Licensed Material.[/spoiler]Now, if I understand everything correctly, the term "athamaru" is where the sticking point might be, since while that's a name it's not a "proper name," which is what's identified in the OGL's PI declaration, meaning that it's being released as OGC, and isn't "derived from proper nouns" as noted under the ORC License's Reserved Material. So if "athamaru" is being presented as OGC (rather than being, say, covered by that "used under Fair Use" clause), I'm not sure that's allowed, since even if the name was released as Licensed Material in the ORC, that doesn't mean that someone who doesn't own that Licensed Material can turn around and release it under a completely different open license....I think.Given that I'm not at all certain about any of what I posted above, this could turn out to be very interesting, in terms of using material from one license under a different license. In the meantime, I'd recommend that anyone interested in this product pick it up sooner rather than later, since if (Paizo thinks that) the author has used ORC material improperly, this might go away very soon.</blockquote>

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