On Sun, 25 Jun 2000, Clark Peterson wrote:
> And dont forget, copyright battles will be between
> the licensee and licensor--not with you. The only way
> a third party would get involved and "force something
> open" would be to produce a derivative work on purpose
> and egg the original author to sue you to protect his
> or her copyright.
Or someone could just go publish a work they want to make
based on content they believe is open and disregard any
complaints from the person who tried to close some open
content.
> Quite the opposite--I think anyone who would publish a
> derivative work on purpose to force a law suit is not
> some noble crusader but is instead an a$$hole of a
> greater magnitude that the author who kept his or her
> content closed in the first place.
The more likely scenario is someone wrote something (say a
mecha rule or magic item) that is a modification of something
in the D20SRD then someone else comes along and wants to
publish another product that uses this. How is the second
person being an ass? Heck the second person might even have
had the intention to do that modification all the time but
didn't get first to market.
> This isnt about crusading legal battles to force
...
> Rather than set up some star chamber of open content
...
Nobody has suggested anything like the above two statements.
Most people are even against WotC being an arbitrator in
disputes. You are really jumping to conclusions.
> copyright. If you build a house, you dont want me to
> be able to just come and live in it in 25 years. If
I don't like to make analogies of real property but if it
will help you think about it: suppose you fenced off a
piece of public park and said, "this is closed, stay out."
If I want to walk on that piece of public park, I will do
so when I please and not wait around or bug the original
donator of the park to get it opened again.
> If I make new rules, I am probably going to open them
The point is if you use open content then you have
to open up your modifications. Whether your "new rules"
are modifications or not may be disputed.
> up--I havent decided yet. I am certain that I will
> open up new monsters, magic items, etc. I am also
> certain that I WILL NOT open my original text. But the
Please read my earlier posts. This is what I said was
the "right" thing to do and already more generous than
most people have planned.
> point is, the license allows that. If someone makes
> new super hero rules and they dont open them up, that
> is their decision. If they are wrong, WotC will
> enforce a violation. And though that isnt a perfect
> solution it is certainly better than any alternative.
I disagree. If someone publishes some super hero rules
that are clearly modifcations then I will feel free to
use them in my super hero product and not wait around for
WotC to do something about it. To reiterate some of my
previous points, I may have intented to make those natural
modifications too but wasn't first to market and I don't
want people fencing off open content that I want to use.
> And while I'm at it--you can give up the pipe dream of
> a "spirit" section. No lawyer worth his salt would
> include such a section. Contracts and licenses need
> definiteness, not vagueness.
I suggested a preample section similar to the one in the
GPL which seems to be working quite fine in the real world
with real lawyers.
> Remember, WotC is doing this for a valid business
[nsip]
> What they most certainly arent doing is creating some
> giant hippy free-love, your work is my work commune.
A worse scenario in my opinion is a bunch of independent
publishers staking out "intellectual property" claims on
every domain making it very difficult to do open content
in those domains. The jackals are the ones reading the
D20SRD, thinking about it a while and then publishing
something and calling it closed cause they put in some
work modifying the open content.
The people who want openness just want to make games.
> We all want the OGL and d20 to succeed. But suing each
> other to "force content into the open" is about the
> worst idea I have ever heard.
The only sueing that MIGHT happen is someone who wants
to force something CLOSED.
--Kal
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