> Now lets assume that one of those articles contains Open Gaming Content.
Check.
> According to the terms of the OGL, publishing in a magazine is clearly
> Distribution under Section 1(c), and the only way an entity can Distribute
> OGC is by accepting the terms of the OGL, as demanded by Section 3.
Check.
> My questions are thus:
> 1) is the entire issue of the magazine covered by the OGL?
Yes.
> 2) what is the legal status of the rest of the material in the magazine?
Is
> it PI? Is it something else?
It could be PI, if the publisher so identified it as such. If they don't
indicate that the rest of the content is Open Gaming Content, and they don't
indicate that the rest of the content is Product Identity, then the OGL
doesn't have anything to say about what it might otherwise be (in other
words, the controlling law becomes Title 17, rather than the OGL, except
where the OGL addresses restrictions on the work as a whole.)
> 3) if so, what rules, if any does the publisher have to follow to legally
> publish this article?
Include a copy of the license, assert copyright over any new material,
identify what is Open Game Content, identify what is Product Identity in the
Open Game Content if they wish, update the copyright notice in the license,
etc.
Without a separate agreement, the magazine cannot contain:
a) Anything identified as Product Identity in any of the ancestor works
that are used in whole, in part, or as the source for derivation of the Open
Game Content.
b) Anything that indicates that any content in the magazine is compatible
with, or coadaptable to any Trademark.
Let's say the magazine's OGC is either completely new, or based exclusively
on the System Reference Document. Let's further say that the magazine's
publisher has no separate agreements.
As currently drafted, there is no Product Identity in the SRD, so "a" is
moot.
Under "b", the magazine can't contain any indication that any content in the
magazine is comptatible or coadaptable with any trademark.
You could say "includes rules for use with Third Edition!" or "Updated
prestige classes for everyone's favorite RPG!"
You could not, for example, have another article in the magazine that
purported to be "New Thraka rules for John Wick's ORKWORLD!", unless you get
permission from Wick to use his "ORKWORLD" trademark.
> 4) can the article is also license the D20 STL, and if so how can the
> magazine publisher use the D20 System trademark?
They can use it in accordance with the d20 System Trademark license, which
means that nowhere in the work can they include any rules for character
creation, applying the effects of experience, or anything that redefines one
of the defined terms.
In return, they get the right to put the d20 System trademark on the
product, indicate compatiblity with D&D, etc.
> 5) if the editor makes a comment in his "From the Editor" column like
> "...Couch Lawyers are a new prestige class for the d20 System, they work
> great with the new version of D&D, you can read about them..." would that
> violate the OGL?
Yup. (both "d20 System" and "D&D" are Trademarks. The Editor can't use them
without a separate agreement.)
Ryan
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