Re: [Open_Gaming] ANOTHER REPOST from "Open-Gaming" List

[Ryan S. Dancey]

From: "Russ Taylor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Never mind that the "D20 System" will have a FAR more restrictive license
> that that, forbidding others from publishing details of the experience
> system.

I think it is unfair to compare the terms of the trademark license with the
terms of the copyright license.

I think that continuing to critique the trademark license as a restrictive
copyright license is confusing to the average person who hasn't read the two
licenses and tends to sew disinformation about the purpose of both.

There are Open Source licenses which have been "certified" by the Open
Source initiative group, and found to be "compatible" with the GPL which
have trademark restrictions built right into them.  The Richo license is one
such license; I'm sure there are others.  The Open Gaming License is even
free of this much encumberance; having the trademark issues segregated
completely out of the main license and into a supplimentary - OPTIONAL -
second license.

The concept of controlling the use of a trademark is not antithetical, in
either practice or spirit, to the idea of Open "Source" or "Games".

Ryan

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