Hey Brad:
Thanks for the clarification. Now I see where you are coming from. I was
not clear because I do not feel this kind of use indicates compatibility
with a "product" as the D20 Systems Reference Document (however you call it)
is not a product, and my statement doesn't really even suggest
compatibility.
Concerning your second point:
>However, I personally think this falls below the bar of 'Clearly
>Identifying' the OGC within your work.
Very much open to interpretation. We would use identical stats blocks and
likely all other features of the work would be non-derivative in that they
would be our proprietary expression of how the rules work.
Thanks for the input.
Faust
>From: "Brad Thompson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: RE: [Open_Gaming] DIFFICULT QUESTION: IDENTIFYING OPEN CONTENT
>Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 21:24:48 -0700
>
> > Faustus von Goethe
> >
> > Uh, Brad. Follow the thread please. I was not talking about the
> > trademark
> > "SRD", I was talking about the trademark "WotC". You said I
> > couldn't use it
> > because the OGL forbids it.
>
>I am following it, and the OGL forbids the use you described. I just
>didn't
>say it as well as I could have.
>
>On Wednesday, November 08, 2000 8:39 PM you said:
>
> > "All open material in this book is directly taken from open
> > content provided by WotC in the D20 SRD. There is no original
> > open content in this volume. Please consult the D20 SRD to
> > reference open content from this publication?"
> >
> > Failing that (since referencing the D20 SRD directly would probably be a
> > trademark violation), would it be sufficient to copy the D20 SRD
>verbatim
> > and reference that document as the open content? Such as:
> >
> > "All of the open content in this work is identified clearly in
> > appendix 'Q' and was provided by WotC. Please reference
> > appendix 'Q' to identify the open content in this work."
> >
> > I do not think referencing WotC is improper in this context as it is
> > identifying the source of the open content - sonething that is
> > required by
> > the license. Ryan? Anyone?
>
>This indicates that you wished to use the trademark 'WotC' or rather
>'Wizards of the Coast' (because 'WotC' is a slang abbreviation that won't
>appear in the SRD) in your section (8) Identification of Open Content. You
>also referred to using the term 'D20 SRD' and suspected it would be a
>trademark violation. I concur, it would be a violation, but since the name
>is changing it won't be an issue (you won't get the chance to refer to that
>document). The mark 'Wizards of the Coast' is a second, separate mark,
>which will remain a part of the soon-to-be-renamed D20 SRD in the
>copyright
>section.
>
> > Now I'm tryng to figure out why you said that & if I am missing
> > something,
> > since nowhere I can see in the OGL does it say I cannot use a
> > WotC trademark
> > to refer to the document from which the open content in my
> > document came.
> > In fact, it says I MUST reference that document.
> >
> > What am I missing?
>
>The OGL says you must copy the COPYRIGHT section verbatim into your
>copyright section. No modifications and no other uses are allowed. Using
>the mark as you suggested in your Identification of OGC is clearly a
>different use than granted under section 6, and so we must look to section
>(7) to see if this is permissible.
>
>From the OGL, section 7:
>
>"You agree not to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any
>Trademark in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as
>expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of such
>Trademark."
>
>The phrase 'compatibility or co-adaptability' has a broad range of meaning.
>It can easily be argued that by making reference to Wizards of the Coast in
>your document as part of your Identification you are indicating that a
>Wizards of the Coast product is compatible with yours by virtue of your
>derivation from their document. This is expressly forbidden by section
>(7),
>and so would be a violation. You have the right to use the material, but
>you can't use their trademark to identify that material in your document -
>you can only use it to give credit to your sources.
>
>Instead, you should simply say
>
> "All of the open content in this work is identified clearly in
> appendix 'Q'. Please reference appendix 'Q' to identify the
> open content in this work."
>
>However, I personally think this falls below the bar of 'Clearly
>Identifying' the OGC within your work. Material which is derived from OGC
>must also be OGC, so in order for this to stick you would have to use the
>SRD without deriving from it, a very difficult task for a non-trivial
>product. However, my opinion of what counts as 'clearly identifying' is
>pretty meaningless.
>
>-Brad
>
>-------------
>For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
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