Talk:Open Game License

message: If any editors familiar with the OGL, and with "open gaming" in general, would like to visit the Talk:Open gaming page and participate in the current discussion, your time and expewrtise would be greatly appreciated. -- BBlackmoor (talk) 19:38, 11 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Open gaming 

message: Almost the entire Criticism section of this article is currently unreferenced. Particularly troublesome is that talks about "various" sources making specific complaints about the OGL without actually citing specifically which person or which group is making which complaint and where editors can go to verify the complaint was made.  So that section badly needs cited, verifiable references to back up who is specifically making what criticism about the OGL. Dugwiki 21:12, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The Criticism section is in serious need of reinstatement.  There is nothing mentioning how many believe the OGL to be a move, spearheaded by Ryan Dancey, to trick other companies into unwittingly giving away their rights as defined by US copyright law.  The OGL claims to give rights (and limited rights, at that) to something that everyone already has the full, unlimited right to do under US law: that is, the right to copy game mechanics ( see: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html ).  
24.78.202.178 (talk) 19:11, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: See WP:FRINGE. 129.33.19.254 (talk) 22:57, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  References needed for criticism section 

message: How exactly is this copyleft?
Under a copyleft form of copyright license, the restrictions imposed are that the work can be copied, modified or used in any subsequent work if, and only if, the author of that subsequent work agrees to grant the same copyleft rights to the public to freely copy, use and modify the subsequent work.
While the OGL clearly states you cannot use their works in a subsequent work made using the OGL
7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use any Product Identity,
Doesn't that contradict it being copyleft?
So what exactly is the OGL? Sounds like nothing more than giving permission to create something so long as it doesn't infringe on copyright...which is the same as not having the OGL in the first place. So is Wizards claiming they have the right to sue for anyone creating something without including their OGL to it? It Wizards basically just trying to gain access to freely use 3rd party material without paying for it? shadzar|Talk|contribs 08:07, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The OGL allows other content producers to use Wizard's D20 system (explicitly rather than ambiguously) and D20 trademark on their publications.  This normally wouldn't be allowed.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.48.5.2 (talk) 23:02, 6 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  To be clear, the trademark issues have nothing to do with the OGL; those fall under the distinct (and now, defunct) d20 System Trademark license. That being said, to back up the prior poster and clarify, only a portion of a work would be specified as "Product Identity", a term invented by the license. The remainder of the material would be "Open Game Content", which can be reproduced ad infinatum without further permissions from the copyright holder, and requiring preservation of those rights. That fits the definition per the Copyleft article. - Sangrolu (talk) 19:53, 12 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Copyleft? 

message: I've removed the context tag, as I think the introduction provides context. If someone still thinks insufficient context is provided, feel free to re-add the tag or (better yet), rewrite the intro to provide the additional context that is needed. Rray (talk) 17:01, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Context tag

message: does something need to be placed here or anywhere regarding these things? the special conference i think that was in a podcast and the article (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4news/20080108a) on wizards website stated a few things, but nothing has been heard since about this. should it be noted that the OGL may be changing with 4th edition. or at least a new OGL specifically for 4th edition will exist seperately form the 3.x OGL and SRD? shadzar-talk 02:22, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: so no one has any idea on what if anything should be included about the several month old information about the new OGl that requires a fee to use? wouldn't that be a closed gaming license since only businesses with the $5000 USD are allowed to have acess to "OGL" amterial with the new editon? shadzar-talk 22:46, 16 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: ok so now new information has come about the D&D 4E GSL. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4news/20080417a shadzar-talk 21:29, 17 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: See Wikipedia:Be bold. If you see something that needs doing, go ahead and do it. I'll add something using your source. =Axlq 13:45, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I am adding if/when information becomes available, but I do not understand legal stuf enough to add too much about a license. Currently there is a new version of the license being created and I also have little to no ability to cite things and ever get them to work in wikipedia as references. Thanks for looking into adding something for this. shadzar-talk 17:47, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  4th edition GSL/OGL/SRD? 

message: The article reads the "The GSL is incompatible with the previous OGL. The GSL directly prohibits material to be published both under the GSL (compatible with 4th Edition) as well as the OGL (compatible with 3rd Edition and Edition 3.5)."
According to the 4E GSL FAQ "There is no provision in the GSL preventing the of use [sic] the OGL but publishers must take care to not assume content in the OGL SRD is the same as like-named content in the GSL SRD."
I read this to be a warning against confusing like terms between the two licenses, not a prohibition against releasing material that utilizes both licenses. If, for example, a publisher were to release a product which includes GSL references then they could still release the non-GSL portions of that product under the OGL.
I think this is merely a matter of precision: Wikipedia's prominence as a reference tool necessitates rigorous attention to such precise details. In the absence of further discussion (or objections) I will edit the article to more accurately reflect the relationship between the OGL and the GSL. highmind89 (talk) 00:13, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Go for it, dude. 204.153.84.10 (talk) 00:29, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mutual Exclusivity and "Compatibility" of OGL and GSL 

message: Just cleaning it up a bit. But as I worked I realized it needed a lot of work. 
The introduction gave to much background and didn't explain the significance of the document. The change I made was to rephrase the introduction to a brief explanation of the of the significance of the OGL and to take all the other things that were previously included in the intro and create a new section titled "background"  
Next, I have removed he section about the GSL as related to wizards. even though the same sort of document it has no direct relevance to this topic, outside of a tangent off its background. I have noted and linked it to the background section.
I added to the "terms" section missing info and clarification. Then split "terms" in two renamed it and expanded the new section for completeness and removed some inaccuracy from both sections
Now I moved the Background section beneath the use section and finished for the night.
I realize these are a lot of things all at once, but please refrain from reverting just based on that. If you don't understand what was changed, please let me know first and I'll better explain it to you.Ken Zug (talk) 07:12, 9 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: It's not a frequently edited article, so I'm sure no one will mind the changes, but good work! :) 24.148.0.83 (talk) 16:24, 9 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Notes on large edit of Aug 8 - 9, 2010 

message: I found a post by Ryan Dancey in a forum thread where he explains very clearly why WotC decided to publish AD&D 3E with the OGL. The following link should take you straight to the post but if not it is #90 in the thread and was posted on 04-05-2014 at 04:50 PM according to the timestamp.
http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?29328-Have-Hasbro-WotC-ever-sued-or-threatened-a-retro-clone-publisher-or-author&s=e2b1916c0f39dec6d8029b22e7791239&p=741115&viewfull=1#post741115
While the entire post is well worth reading, the most informative part is where Dancy states:
We also knew that the market was structurally unsound. For many reasons there were millions of people playing tabletop RPGs but we estimated the number of people buying tabletop RPGs in the low tens of thousands. That much overhang was an indication that the market was fundamentally failing to deliver products that the consumers were willing to buy. The industry had gone down various rabbit holes and was printing itself into oblivion.So the OGL/d20 project was a part of a multi-pronged Hail Mary. Absolutely horrific conditions are the only time a business will try insanely ridiculous strategies.I think it is inarguable that the strategy paid off. If you had told retailers in 1999 that in 2001 they would be stocking their shelves with new RPG products from dozens of new publishers and that RPGs would triple or quadruple their sales, they'd have laughed you out of the room. But that's exactly what happened.
I'm not exactly sure how to work this into the article but I think it is worth trying to do. There is of course two problems: Needing to verify this source (forum postings are not normally reliable) for WP standards and possibly some sort of correspondence with Dancey to confirm the information in the post and that he is in fact the author of that post. Koala Tea Of Mercy (KTOM's Articulations & Invigilations) 23:08, 12 June 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: That's a good read. There's some nice details in there, but as you say using it's very tricky. Has Dancey been published? He's a significant primary source, but it would be helpful if we could document that somehow. Correspondence with him would still need to meet WP:V, which can be very difficult. Hmm... Grayfell (talk) 23:28, 12 June 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Explanation by Ryan Dancey of the business logic used by Wizards of the Coast to decide to implement the OGL. 

message: The second footnote states:
 Cook, Monte. "The Open Game License as I See It". Archived from the original on 2007-05-01. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
How could it be retrieved on 3/15/07 when it wasn't archived until 5/1/07?  Ileanadu (talk) 02:19, 29 May 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Probably an error?  The retrieved date is largely irrelevant anyway, and can probably be removed. 2601:241:4280:161:1997:5915:5006:9454 (talk) 03:54, 29 May 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Footnote Q - how can reference be retrieved BEFORE it's archived. 

message: On 8 August 2020, the Open Game License page and its complete edit history has been exported from here and imported at RPG Museum (page link), a growing wiki on Fandom that intends to be a resource for all tabletop RPGs. RPG Museum is using this content under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license. Thanks, all! -- Supermorff (talk) 13:25, 8 August 2020 (UTC)
thread_title: Exported to RPG Museum

message: Challenging to say if anybody reads this much, yet added section breaks to main article.  There's a lot of info in here, may try to propagate it over to GSL and main article.  Talk is longer than article.  Course, not helped by WotC deleting their website every year. Araesmojo (talk) 00:24, 24 October 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Added Section Breaks 

message: I propose to merge Game System License here, given the overlap since the GSL is essentially the 4th Edition OGL and the differences can be addressed in the history section. The OGL article would be stronger when combined with the GSL article as it shows the direct develop of the open game system (from the 3E OGL to the 4E GSL and then back to OGL with 5E D&D). Additionally, the GSL article is entirely sourced by primary sources and is vulnerable to AfD. Sariel Xilo (talk) 02:01, 21 November 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merger proposal 

message: . Under Open Game License#One D&D, I highlighted that Codega's initial article calls out deauthorization () followed by Dancey's statement on the issue. Which is why I then quoted another reporter's take on deauthorization in the impact section as questions around it keep being raised by those reporting on the issue. Sariel Xilo (talk) 23:37, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Deauthorization of OGL1.0a

message: Article says OGL is viral (it has share-alike property), but there is no citation to this and I've just went through the OGL twice (and consulted a lawyer friend on top of that) and I found nothing indicating virality (nor did my lawyer friend). As a matter of fact as I read it OGL allows "pure takers" who just take OGL content, attribute it properly under OGL but who then license nothing back. Unless somebody points out specific part of the OGL which indicates virality and/or source proving this part in fact causes virality, then I suggest to delete this information from the article as false/misleading. If I just missed something then I'll be happy to stay corrected - in that case clarification and citation should be added into the article. Sirien.neiris (talk) 21:39, 17 April 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Share alike / virality - not true, delete?