>From: "LaPierre, Bob" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>If the owners want to do it your way they will but if you or anyone else
>does it without their permission then while technically your right it goes
>against the spirit of the foundation. It may be open but it is still
>_OURS_,
>don't take that away from us. The Open Gaming Foundation is about the right
>to publish, not the necessity to publish.
"wrong." (Note the quotes!)
The "spirit of the foundation" is to eliminate unneccessary duplication of
work, by seperating the valuable (PI) from the not valuable (OGC.)
When someone places something under the OGL, they say "you can use this
whenever, wherever, and however you want, as long as you put your new work
under the OGL" to *EVERYONE ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET!*
Not just gamers. Not just developers. *EVERYONE.*
Yes, that's scary. Especially when it's your meal ticket, and not just your
hobby. (Yes, this is my hobby.)
Yes, that's a Very Good Reason to keep all the unique stuff that you worry
about and that makes your product your product as PI.
Guess what? That's why PI exists. That's why the "Larger Work" idea
existed. A completley open and free game would *NEVER* make a solid,
consistent profit. No company in the Open Source world that has based its
model on soley making GPL's software is profitable. (Those that cetner on
OS and *are* profitable do so by focusing on what they *can* be certain to
charge for, like Service Plans and documentation.)
No one's ever bought a service plan for an RPG, so there has to be something
else--thus, the OGL had to have the ability for an author to close off the
"private, moneymaking" parts of his work and leave the rest of it open.
I repeat, just to make it clear: PI everything that makes your customers buy
your product. OGC *only* that which is derivitive, that which the OGL
requires, and those things that you are willing to show up on the net for
free, in your competitor's products, and in a thousand other ways that earn
you no money at all.
I am not White Wolf. I am not Wizards of the Coast. I am not Steve
Jackson, Necromancer Games, Earth1066, or Fiend Games. I am a rabid fan,
and earn no money from RPGs; thus, I can afford to OGL the whole of my work.
I would label "foolsih" any of the companies I listed if they release
their meal tickets as Open Game Content.
Doug Meerschaert
http://home.nycap.rr.com/steelstone
http://www.dunandralis.com/
P.S. Dunandralis is going to be mostly open, but will use PI to enforce our
"Dunandrlis terms" or whatever... which are going to be *almost completely
open* and modeled after the D20STL or something. We'll also use PI to make
money, when we finally sell something... and be sure to not Open that which
we need to send little gamers to college.
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