Re: [TML] In Re The OGL Foofaraw... Rupert Boleyn 16 Jan 2023 23:26 UTC


On 17Jan2023 1214, James Catchpole - jlcatchpole at googlemail.com (via
tml list) wrote:
> The question that has the Cepheus engine publishers worried is that if WOTC
> were to revoke OGL1.0a and not be challenged in court, then Mongoose could
> use that to say the Traveller SRD is no longer valid. This is something
> they have said they would previously like to do, but everyone has taken it
> as given that they can't. This might make Cepheus in its current form no
> longer viable as a set of rules for any future publication.
>
> There is a while long list of IFS bits and maybes there, but the
> uncertainty around this is already having an effect on these publishers...
The OGL's primary value was in the certainty it provided - much of what
is/was 'granted' is/was already legal, but given TSR's (and others')
habit of going after people for infringements that weren't and killing
them with the cost of fighting (e.g. GDW & Gygax over Dangerous
Journeys/Mythus), that certainty was a huge deal.

WotC has managed to flush over twenty years of trust and goodwill down
the toilet in a couple of weeks.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>