At 08:48 PM 8/20/00 -0400, "Martin L. Shoemaker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>And suppose I should derive from OGC, offer no new OGC at all, and otherwise
>close my work. Even in this case, I can still contribute to the gaming
>community ...
If everyone does that, where is the OGC material going to come from? I
don't think there's a stigma in doing proprietary work or wanting to own
your own work. If Paul Lidberg wants to hold onto the Hungarian film
rights for Attack of the Humans, more power to him.
However, as a general principle, if you personally benefit from open
work, you should open your work too, at least in part. Your hypothetical
example of someone who uses OGC content and publishes none doesn't sound
like a contributor to me. The word that springs to mind here is "leech."
How much monetary value has Linus Torvalds given the world? An operating
system is so valuable that one of the world's richest companies made its
fortune selling one. Yet Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman gave theirs
away for free, and most of the talk in the RPG community is about keeping
work closed while making use of open material. Maybe I'm wrong to compare
software and roleplaying, but to watch programmers give away millions
while RPGers fret over pennies is hard to view charitably.
Rogers Cadenhead
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.prefect.com
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