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Re: Rules for submitting licenses for review



On 8/22/05, Ken Arromdee <arromdee@rahul.net> wrote:
> The problem is that the GPL says "if you obey this license, you can do these
> things that you otherwise can't do".
> 
> The OGL says "if you obey this license, you can do these things that are
> otherwise legal anyway, we just promise not to bankrupt you with baseless
> lawsuits that we know you can't afford to defend against".  Game rules can't
> be copyrighted (though their specific text can), but the OGL is based around
> TSR's/WotC's attempt to assert copyright in its game rules and claim that
> nobody can use them without a license.

I disagree.

OGL says: 

   4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for agreeing to use this 
   License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, 
   non-exclusive license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the 
   Open Game Content."

And, in the definitions section: 

   "Use", "Used" or "Using" means to use, Distribute, copy, edit, format, 
   modify, translate and otherwise create Derivative Material of Open Game 
  Content.

It does say you can't use someone else's trademarks without their permission, 
which is redundant from a copyright point of view, but not from a contractual
point of view (otherwise their license is so broad it could be considered as
some kind of grant of trademark rights).

There might be something wrong with this license, but at the moment I
don't see what that would be.

-- 
Raul



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