> I'm willing to table that, and maybe even table that > in your favor, ceding the > point to your experience on the relative power of > parties in the > relationship.
That's a good idea, since the OGL is not by any stretch of definition a contract of adhesion. > It's also a contract, and you've even > said privately to me that > contract law applies to the OGL. I agree. > It is my understanding that typically, where one > party is drafting a > contract, where the other has no negotiating power > with regards to the contract, that > very often (though not always, depending on the > nature and quality of the > relationship), vague areas in a contract are > construed against a party who drafts > a contract unilaterally. The reasons for that are because of some inequity in the contract. This isnt one of those situations, IMHO. And while contract law applies, this isnt a complex contract. It is a very, very simple license. Very simple to use. There are no terms that hurt the licensee--no fee, no nothing. WotC is giving the content away for free if you just do a few simple things. NO COURT is going to feel WotC is exploiting its alleged bargaining position. "Let me get this straight counsel, you are arguing they are exploiting their unfair bargaining position by giving you basically the entire content of the industry leading product for you to use and profit from and they arent even charging a fee, requireing approval or anything?" You'd get laughed out of court, in my opinion. This is about as "selfless" a license as can be imagined. Think about what courts normally see for licenses. > Do you doubt that vague areas would tend to be > construed against WotC's > desired interpretations, in many, though probably > not all cases? I dont see the OGL as being construed either for or against WotC. This isnt a situation where one party is going to be "punished" for problems with the license since there is no inequity here. IMHO, any court construing the OGL will not construe either for or against; instead the court will do two things: 1. try to read the license harmoniously, looking at all the language in the license as a whole. 2. look at the practice in the industry as to how the license is interpreted and used. Clark _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list Ogf-l@mail.opengamingfoundation.org http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
