Folks,

Folks,
I know that many of you assume that I am actually an evil corporate shill. Well, I want you all to know that while I may be evil, I am no corporate shill. But I do have a job to do and part of that job is protecting our corporate assets while still providing as free a playground as possible.

So let’s go over this document one paragraph at a time:

>>IMPORTANT – READ THIS AGREEMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE CONVERTING ANY 1ST AND 2ND D&D®/ AD&D® EDITION MATERIALS INTO 3RD EDITION MATERIALS.  IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, DO NOT CONVERT THE PRODUCT.  YOU AGREE THAT BY CONVERTING THE PRODUCT YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT, UNDERSTAND IT, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS.<<

This is the "if you want to use our toys in public then you gotta play by our rules" section, keeping in mind that what you do behind closed doors is your own business. I promise I will not come to your house and demand to know if you have converted one of our 1E or 2E products in your bedroom late at night.

>>The Open Gaming movement continues to extend itself into new venues all the time, requiring updates and explanations of policies on a regular basis. Recently, people have requested permission to convert 1st- and 2nd-edition D&D®/AD&D® materials, primarily made available through the Electronic SKU Download (ESD) project, into 3rd-edition D&D (3E) materials and to make them available on personal Web sites. This is permissible under the rules of the Open Gaming License (OGL) and the d20™ System Trademark License, and this document addresses Wizards of the Coast’s (“Wizards”) policies with regard to that activity.<<

This is the, "yes, we have not yet addressed this area of consumer web content and now we are" section. It also address that we recognize that the OGL and d20 could be used in this regard.

>>However, performing the conversion according to OGL standards is not sufficient in itself to post the materials without committing copyright and/or trademark infringement. It is critical to understand all brands, logos, and proper names within those materials are, and remain, the property of Wizards. Furthermore, it is necessary to prominently acknowledge ownership within the converted materials. Don’t be fooled by unauthorized conversions you may find all over the Internet: People who upload those materials are, knowingly or unknowingly, committing acts of copyright infringement and are vulnerable to litigation. Furthermore, they are damaging Wizards’ ability to protect its own intellectual property, and contributing to factors that could ultimately result in the withdrawal of any and all permissions to conduct this activity.  Wizards’ participation in the Open Gaming movement is quite unconventional, if not radical, in the business world—please respect the company’s willingness to risk its Intellectual Properties by protecting them!<<

This is an important section. It says **why** we have to do this. By law if we do not defend our property the courts can declare it “open to the public”. This would be very harmful to our business and you can imagine what the reaction of the parent company would be. But it does open this door – if the properties are rightfully acknowledged, then no harm is done.

>> Wizards shall be the sole source of the original materials, whether they have been obtained as ESDs, scanned, or otherwise procured. All you are authorized to convert to 3E are the mechanics, themselves. For example, if an AD&D encounter describes a scene wherein the adventurers are traveling down a road when they are accosted by a group of orcs, who demand their money or their lives, followed by a stat block that details the orc party, all you are authorized to convert is the stat block. You may add any additional mechanical information necessary to run the encounter in a 3E game, aside from the stat block, but you may not include the encounter itself, or the entire adventure in which it takes place.<<

This is also an important piece. Please note that it says, “Wizards shall be the sole source of the original materials, whether they have been obtained as ESDs, scanned, or otherwise procured.” You are not limited to ESDs for conversion. You may convert a paper piece that you own from 1E or 2E! Information to the contrary was in error. But it also says that you cannot give away the original product or duplicate the original product with your conversion. In other words, you cannot take an ESD or a scanned paper product and simply convert the state blocks and then put it up for download. We were seeing more and more of that kind of activity. That is a direct and egregious violation of copyright. If we continued to ignore it, we would be risking our ability to defend our copyrights in the future.

>> You must clearly identify the ESD that has been converted, and it is customary to provide a link to the Wizards Web page where the ESD may be downloaded.<<

Please note the word “CUSTOMARY”. No gun there.

>> Conversions must be performed using the System Reference Document (SRD), created for OGL users, for purposes of establishing 3E mechanics in the respective materials. <<

This is standard for all OGL and d20 products. You must use the SRD. Please note that the SRD currently includes the three core books and Psionics. As time goes on, it will continue to expand.

>>You are only granted permission to convert the ESD; you may not perform a re-design based upon personal standards and opinions.<<

This merely means that you cannot rewrite the adventure to your particular tastes. For example, if the finale of the adventure is an encounter with a black dragon, you can’t decide that a white dragon would have been so much cooler, or more logical, or whatever.

>> (Note the OGL must be included in the download such that it will print along with the materials—see the rules for publishing OGL products at www.wizards.com/d20 for complete information.) By doing so, it is legal to host the conversion on a personal Web site without obtaining formal permissions from Wizards.<<

This is a standard OGL rule and is not asking a great deal. For most conversions it means adding one page.

>> Product Labeling:
Permission is granted to use the full and complete title of any ESD obtained legally from Wizards for a conversion.  You may only use that title in the following format:

d20™ System Conversion of: “ [insert full title of product here]<<

This is added because the titles of adventures are copyrighted; some include trademarks and many use valuable IPs. But we can’t give permission on a case-by-case basis; that would take too much time. So we have given you a method of titling an adventure that protects our copyright but makes it easy to tell which adventure it is.

>> Legal Text:
You must affix the following notice to the document containing any trademark or element of Product Identity used per this Agreement:

“[Insert product title here], Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, AD&D, the D&D logo, the AD&D logo, the d20 System logo and d20 are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used with permission.  All titles, and all proper nouns, including character names, locations, and named items are considered Product Identity per Section 1 of the Open Game License v1.0a and are exclusively owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
©2002 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Compliance of Conversion Policy, Open Game License and the d20 System Trademark License:
Use of Wizards of the Coast® Product Identity including proper names and product titles is hereby permitted exclusively via this ESD Conversion Agreement.  A current version of this policy can be obtained at: (http://www.wizards.com/d20/conversionpolicy.asp).  <<

This is the part where we grant you permission to us some of our property as long as you acknowledge that it is our property. Addition to most ESDs: two paragraphs.

>> The distributor of this document accepts full responsibility for ensuring the materials contained within comply with the most recently published version of that policy, and with the Open Game License, and with the d20 System Trademark License.  If you wish to redistribute any portion of this document containing Wizards Product Identity, you must also agree to the terms of the current ESD Conversion Agreement.<<

Okay, this is the part that is the most problematic for Morrus. But what are our choices? The author can remain anonymous so the distributor is whom we have to hold responsible. It does mean that someone has to read conversions before they go online. But if we were to find a document that was in violation, we would simply tell the distributor which document is a problem, and they would have the choice of action (take it down or change it so that it complies). We would only have a problem if we notified someone of a problem document and they refused to take action.

>>To obtain a digital copy of the original source material this conversion is derived from, please link to: http://www.wizards.com/whatevertherightlinkshouldbe.asp.”<<

Remember “CUSTOMARY,” as in optional.

>>In addition, you must update Section 15 of the text of the Open Game License you include with your work to include a copyright notice in the following format:

“[insert title here], © [ insert copyright date from the product you are converting ] Wizards of the Coast, Inc.”

and

“d20™ System Conversion of [ insert product title here ], ©2002 [insert your name or company name here ].”<<

Standard d20/OGL text, this will add a few sentences.

>>Restrictions:
Furthermore, you may not charge a fee for the distribution of any document licensed using this agreement.  You may not impose any additional restrictions on the redistribution of this document.  The Open Game Content in the conversion is, of course, not affected by these restrictions, but any portion of the work containing Wizards Product Identity is so restricted.<<

This has been the policy all along, so it should not be a surprise.

>>Termination:
Wizards or its designated agents may terminate this agreement at any time by notice to you via email or surface mail.  If this agreement is terminated, you agree to remove any electronic versions of this conversion under your control from distribution, and to destroy any printed versions of this conversion in your possession immediately. Once terminated, your right to continue to use the trademarks and Product Identity outlined in this Agreement terminate as well.<<

Okay, what the hell does this mean? It means we have to have a legal out. If copyright violation is so egregious and so common that we are spending all of our time dealing with that, then we cannot allow conversions to continue. This is not an evil plot anymore then d20/OGL was an evil plot (remember how everyone kept saying that we were going to pull a fast one on the industry??). Personally, now that we have spelled it, out I expect violations to drop down so low that they are below our radar. Which is just what we want. We want you guys to keep converting and for us to be able trust everyone to do so properly. Hopefully these guidelines will allow us to do just that.

Anthony Valterra