Personally, If I were you then I'd just give up. Don't even bother releasing anything using the OGL in Sweden. I'm not a lawyer but honestly, if you're at a point where you are analyzing the use of semi-colons then it is time to suck it up and realize the license is just not for you.
He's not "analyzing" the use of semicolons--he's simply making an obvious observation to anyone with a basic grasp of English grammar: the license is a grammatical mess. It's sloppy. I don't know, for certain, how much legal effect that has, but grammatically it has a very significant effect. Semicolons have a distinct meaning--they're more akin to a period than a comma. Join two things with a comma, and they're basically one thought. Join them with a semicolon, and you have two distinct, but related, thoughts. Makes a huge difference in the list-like definitions, especially.
I've only ever released something small time... but that is more than enough to know that the license does what it needs to do for the very basics. In other words, if you are using it the way it was intended to do. The weird stuff you try to do with it, the less valid it becomes and the more the discussion shifts into the hypothetical.
I'll reiterate something i said previously:
At 15:34 -0500 4/11/04, woodelf wrote:
Finally, let me illustrate the ambiguity of the grammar in that clause. I've put together a few possible, reasonable, alternatives to that clause, all of which change nothing but commas and semicolons, all of which are grammatically unambiguous in their meaning [applying it to actual law might still be fuzzy], and each of which means something slightly different.
"(d)"Open Game Content" means the game mechanic; and includes the methods,
procedures, processes, and routines, to the extent such content does not embody
the Product Identity and is an enhancement over the prior art; and any
additional content clearly identified as Open Game Content by the Contributor;
and means any work covered by this License, including translations and
derivative works under copyright law; but specifically excludes Product
Identity. "
"(d)"Open Game Content" means the game mechanic, and includes the methods, procedures, processes, and routines to the extent such content does not embody the Product Identity, and is an enhancement over the prior art, and any additional content clearly identified as Open Game Content by the Contributor; and means any work covered by this License, including translations and derivative works under copyright law, but specifically excludes Product Identity. "
"(d)"Open Game Content" means the game mechanic, and includes the methods, procedures, processes, and routines to the extent such content does not embody the Product Identity and is an enhancement over the prior art; and any additional content clearly identified as Open Game Content by the Contributor, and means any work covered by this License, including translations and derivative works under copyright law; but specifically excludes Product Identity. "
"(d)"Open Game Content" means the game mechanic and includes the methods,
procedures, processes, and routines, to the extent such content does not embody
the Product Identity, and is an enhancement over the prior art and any
additional content clearly identified as Open Game Content by the Contributor;
and means any work covered by this License, including translations and
derivative works under copyright law, but specifically excludes Product
Identity. "
"(d)"Open Game Content" means the game mechanic; and includes the methods,
procedures, processes, and routines; to the extent such content does not embody
the Product Identity, and is an enhancement over the prior art; and any
additional content clearly identified as Open Game Content by the Contributor;
and means any work covered by this License; including translations and
derivative works under copyright law; but specifically excludes Product
Identity. "
And we have no idea whether one of these, or some other meaning, is what the clause is acutally supposed to say, because right now it is fairly ambiguous in meaning. And in a very real and practical-minded way: all these discussions of what can and can't be PI, which PI you have to pay attention to, etc., stem back to ambiguities in the license, and several of those ambiguities are just a punctuation clean-up away from being resolved. Heck, if the punctuation was clearer, we wouldn't be having discussions of what the license says, we'd be having discussions, grounded in a shared understanding of the license, of what to do with it or how to get it changed.
-- woodelf <*> [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://webpages.charter.net/woodelph/
"Grave robbery? That's new. Interesting." "I know you meant to say gross and disturbing." "Yes, yes, yes, of course. Terrible thing. Must put a stop to it. Damn it." --Giles and Buffy _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
