Wow, John, that was a very well put together message. Very timely as well.
I've certainly been getting the feeling that the general tone of this
mailing list - as well as the OGL list - is "let's see how much we can
take". Since many people here are probably hoping to benefit from the D20
license in some way it would be in all of our best interests to read John's
message and take it to heart. I've included it below, in its entirety, just
in case you missed it the first time.
- Jay Adan
- Cyberlore Studios
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of John
Nephew
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2000 6:05 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [ogf-d20-l] A Cautionary Note - The D20 System License
Folks, it's maybe time for all of us to take a deep breath, relax, step
back, and think about this whole D20 System License thing.
As Ryan has pointed out, the license is NOT finalized. There are two major
consequences of this fact that we who are publishing D20 materials need to
consider.
First is that the final form of the license has yet to be determined, and it
could differ substantially from what we have seen so far. Ryan Dancey has
now offered a public note of caution on this point.
Second is that the actions of D20 publishers in this formative time can be
assumed to have a direct impact on what form that final license will take --
or indeed whether a D20 license exists at all. Remember, just because there
is an OGL doesn't mean that the D20 System has to be released under it, even
if that is Ryan's and WotC's intention at this time.
If a lot of publishers seem incapable of following the strict but clear
requirements of the OGL and draft D20STL, WotC may reasonably conclude that
there is a big downside to the open license -- namely, that people will
wrongly assume rights and privileges that they have not been granted. WotC
may decide "Oh well, that's part of the cost of doing this"; or they may
decide that it's important to make some examples by legally pursuing some
egregious offenders; or they may decide that in the end the D20STL just
muddies the intellectual property waters by giving a lot of people a
mistaken impression that they have carte blanche to go to town with WotC's
trademarks and other IP...and thus the D20STL will be stillborn, because the
risk it poses to WotC's assets too high for the benefit it hopes to deliver.
When it comes to the D20 trademark license, we all need to keep one
paramount concern in mind: This is WotC's property. What we do, while it
may serve our own interest, will also be inevitably questioned on the basis
of how it serves WotC's interest, especially when the D20STL is in its
formative stages. Happily, we're talking about a win-win proposition...an
adventure like Three Days to Kill obviously has been good for Atlas Games,
but it also, I believe, helped WotC in a small way, by providing material
for gamers to use right away, by providing new monsters at a time when there
were only a handful in the back of the Player's Handbook, by setting a clear
example (and a good example, I hope) on how to present and use the OGL and
D20STL, and so forth. But a product that may be construed as threatening
WotC's interests in some way may have a negative impact on support within
WotC for the continuing development of the D20STL.
(If anyone wants to complain about WotC throwing weight around and not
embracing the full "open source" spirit, let me preemptively say: shut up
already. We're talking about D20 now, not Open Source or even Open Gaming
per se, and D20 is WotC's property, period, and anyone who expects them to
regard it differently is naive. Plus, plenty of developers sound eager to
close off a lot of things as "product identity" in their own works while
perhaps assuming that WotC isn't going to do the same thing. The less WotC
restricts as PI, the better for all of us. And the more everyone other than
WotC seems inclined to say "Everything but the stat boxes is PI," the less
charitable WotC is likely to be when it comes to delineating their own PI.
But the "how much should be PI?" rant I'll save for another day.)
Shaping Atlas strategy, my own view is that at this time it's appropriate to
proceed with caution and deference, assuming if anything that the final
D20STL will be more restrictive than the draft. While that may limit the
types of products we're doing in the short term, I'm not feeling bad about
taking "baby steps" for now. The benefit to the game industry (and to Atlas
in particular) of a strong, healthy D20 licensing structure would be
enormous, and in my view much greater than the possible short-term gain from
pushing things as close to the edge as possible.
-John Nephew
President, Atlas Games
