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103-461: The Open Game License ( OGL ) is a public copyright license by Wizards of the Coast that may be used by tabletop role-playing game developers to grant permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some of the content designed for their games, notably game mechanics . However, they must share-alike copies and derivative works . The OGL states that "in consideration for agreeing to use this License,

206-416: A Creative Commons license , while other material would have been covered by OGL 1.2. For example, "specific classes, spells, and monsters" would have fallen under the proposed OGL 1.2 while "Alignment, Equipment, Feats, the use of Ability Scores, Combat Rules, how Spellcasting works, how monster stat blocks work, and Conditions will have been covered under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International". Unlike

309-481: A copyleft license. Libre licenses without share-alike terms are sometimes called permissive licenses . The Creative Commons public copyright license suite includes licenses with attribution, share-alike, non-commercial and no-derivatives conditions. It also offers a public domain license and the Founders' Copyright license. Open supplement licenses permit derivatives of the work (specifically material that supplements

412-533: A change that the community of people using the Open Gaming License would object to, because the community would just ignore the change anyway". In June 2008, Wizards of the Coast transitioned to a new, more restrictive royalty-free license called the Game System License (GSL), which is available for third-party developers to publish products compatible with Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition. The GSL

515-507: A chilling effect on new licensed products". Eric Law, for Game Rant , commented that this leak was causing "panic" among third-party publishers. Law stated that "the most concerning section of the legal document adds that Wizards of the Coast has full rights to any content created by the OGL. This would allow Dungeons and Dragons to take any homebrew content and publish it in official Dungeons and Dragons material without permission or compensation to

618-459: A cost-friendly method of opening up the gates to the past. It can conduct some polling on what the community wants on the Guild, when it comes to books for older settings, and then, commission someone to do so". In 2019, The Verge included DriveThruRPG on a roundup of websites to purchase from that are not Amazon . In 2020, Polygon reported that "Wizards runs an organized play series known as

721-591: A different licensing option by publishing through the Dungeon Masters Guild storefront; this license allows individuals and third party publishers to create and sell content based on specific Wizards of the Coast intellectual property such as the Forgotten Realms , Ravenloft , Eberron , and the Magic: The Gathering planes . Content creators are allowed to set their own price, however, Wizards of

824-477: A higher rate than non-d20 products until the mid 2000s. It "was considered by WOTC's managers as a huge success due to the large movement of adoption it created among publishers". They also highlighted that the "success was amplified by the rise of electronic publishing". Mike Whelan and Bob Tarantino, for Law Insider in 2021, commented that "the scope of the Open Game License is incredibly broad. The license

927-563: A list of FSF-approved software licenses and free documentation licenses. The Open Source Initiative keeps a similar list of OSI-approved software licenses. The Open Knowledge Foundation has a list of OKFN-approved licenses for content and data licensing. The implied license imposed by the Berne Convention , and the public domain (the CC0 license as waiver ), are the references for any other public license. Considering all cultural works, as in

1030-494: A much more financially astute option. DriveThruRPG.com is a great place to find PDFs". In 2018, Deterding and Zagal wrote that "by its own account, DriveThruRPG, run by OneBookShelf, is currently the largest online marketplace for TRPGs. [...] It allows TRPG publishers to offer their current and historic catalogs as PDFs and print-on-demand books. As online digital and print-on-demand distribution maximizes reach and minimizes up-front investment hurdles and risk, it has contributed to

1133-424: A new Open RPG Creative License (ORC), an open, perpetual, and irrevocable system-agnostic license, as a direct response to the reported changes to the OGL. They stated that the license would not be owned by Paizo or any RPG publisher, to protect against future attempts to modify or rescind it. Additional publishers, such as Kobold Press, Chaosium , Green Ronin , Legendary Games, and Rogue Genius Games, will be part of

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1236-412: A new market segment [...], I personally prefer to be a second-mover into many business opportunities. For example, when starting DriveThruRPG, we were a second-mover behind James Mathe, who had already started RPGNow". In 2006, RPGNow and DriveThruRPG merged into a new company called OneBookShelf. Originally, OneBookShelf maintained the separate digital storefronts of RPGNow and DriveThruRPG while merging

1339-525: A path for Wizards of the Coast to muscle in on ultra-successful crowdfunding projects without crushing existing communities, which the blog post says are 'a critical part of the D&;D experience'. It also said existing virtual tabletop agreements will not be affected by whatever shape the OGL takes, even though the company has announced their own version to launch close to OneD&D's release in 2024". Linda Codega, for Io9 on January 5, 2023, wrote that "by ending

1442-435: A plan with Wizards, but denies its direct involvement in the OGL 1.1". In the days following the leak, IGN , Vice , The Guardian , Financial Times and many other industry focused outlets reported on negative reactions from both fans and professional content creators. ComicBook.com reported that it had "spoken with over 20 small to mid-sized creators who have said that in-progress projects set to be published under

1545-399: A public copyright license must allow licensees to share and adapt the licensed work for any purpose, including commercial ones. Licenses that purport to release a work into the public domain are a type of libre license. Share-alike licenses require derivatives of the licensed work to be released under the same license as the original. When a libre license has a share-alike term, it is called

1648-439: A streaming show for Wizards of the Coast on D&D's streaming channel ), and Mike Shea, publisher of Sly Flourish ". There was also an online movement to cancel subscriptions to D&D Beyond ; Io9 reported that per their sources at Wizards "the result of these cancellations and their impact on the bottom line of Wizards of the Coast is not negligible" and led to scrambling by upper management "to adjust their messaging around

1751-434: Is in fact no longer viable, every single licensed publisher will be affected by the new agreement, because every commercial creator will be asked to report their products, new and old, to Wizards of the Coast. [...] The main takeaway from the leaked OGL 1.1 draft document is that WotC is keeping power close at hand. [...] There are a lot of implications in this extended policy, and the ramifications of this updated OGL could have

1854-531: Is incompatible with the previous OGL. However, by its own terms the OGL is perpetual, and remained in widespread use. Greg Tito, for The Escapist in 2011, commented that the GSL "released in conjunction with 4th edition took away many of the freedoms that the industry had come to expect with the D&;D rules, such as reprinting text for clarity in new products". Andy Collins , a Dungeons & Dragons designer who became

1957-458: Is perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, and not exclusive. You never have to worry about your license expiring or any jurisdictional issues. You never have to worry about making a single royalty payment even when you monetize your content". Tarantino attributed the OGL to part of the game's "tremendous audience growth" over the past twenty years. Christopher B. Seaman and Thuan Tran, for the academic journal Iowa Law Review in 2022, highlighted that

2060-401: Is problematic. This is achieved by a public domain waiver statement and a fall-back all- permissive license . The Unlicense , published around 2010, has a focus on an anti-copyright message. The Unlicense offers a public domain waiver text with a fall-back public domain-like license inspired by permissive licenses but without attribution. OneBookShelf#Dungeon Masters Guild RPGNow

2163-669: Is simply going to be this: Offensive Content: We'll know it when we see it. I will be the final arbiter of what OneBookShelf deems offensive. [...] Any title in which racial violence, rape, torture, or a similar subject is treated as a central feature will naturally be subjected to increased scrutiny. [...] We will continue to be reactive, not proactive, on judging new title releases. Historically, 99.99% of publishers' content has been inoffensive. Being able to activate their own titles for sale with our marketplace tools gives publishers additional control over their release marketing timing and generally gets RPG products to market more quickly. [...] Once

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2266-512: Is unique to your deck, or make it publicly available so that other PACG fans can try it out". In 2016, OneBookShelf launched a new digital storefront in partnership with Wizards of the Coast called the Dungeon Masters Guild (DMsGuild). The DNDClassics site was replaced by the new DMsGuild storefront. With the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons open game license , third party publishers are allowed to print and publish content based on

2369-595: The Middle East . In June 2022, OneBookShelf announced a new partnership with Roll20 that would allow content creators on DMsGuild to sell modules and add-ons which are directly integrated with Roll20's virtual tabletop system. In July 2022, Roll20 and OneBookShelf announced a merger between the two companies. This merger will combine the content libraries of both companies and make "OneBookShelf's PDF libraries accessible within Roll20". Ankit Lai, CEO of Roll20, will become

2472-459: The Open Definition , the four freedoms summarizes the main differences: The "open licenses" preserve the main freedoms of CC0, but add some reasonable restriction. Labeling by its acronyms, the main restrictions are: Free licenses are a popular subset of public copyright licenses. They include free and open source software licenses and free content licenses. To qualify as a libre license,

2575-435: The "Design & Development Manager around the release of 4th edition", stated that: I remember arguing pretty hard to retain something like what Wizards had done for 3rd edition; an open license that included the core rules and a few basic guidelines on how to use it. I argued that without some kind of OGL, Wizards risked leaving behind the body of customers and potential customers who saw the open license as an assumed part of

2678-446: The "legal situation is complicated a bit [...] by Section 9" of the original OGL as that clause states third party designers can "use any authorized version of this License to copy, modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under any version of this License". Orland stated that Section 9 coupled with statements made by Wizards of the Coast in the original 2001 FAQ, seem "to suggest that companies could continue using

2781-415: The "primary benefit" is knowing the exact terms in order to not be sued by Wizards of the Coast and avoiding "having to prove your fair use rights or engage in an expensive legal battle over copyrightability in court". Walsh stated that "open licenses can involve a lot of legalese that makes them hard for a layperson to understand" and explained that "perpetual" and "irrevocable" are separate legal terms; while

2884-407: The 5th Edition System Reference Document (SRD). The DMsGuild took that a step further by allowing individuals and third party publishers to create and sell content based on the Forgotten Realms . The Escapist reported "the Dungeon Masters Guild alone is a big deal since it allows anyone to be paid for Forgotten Realms content - something that once required a specific contract with Wizards of

2987-470: The Coast and OneBookShelf take a 50% cut of the proceeds. In August 2022, Wizards of the Coast launched a public playtest of the next version of Dungeons & Dragons under the One D&;D initiative. In November 2022, there was reported speculation that the OGL would be discontinued for this new iteration of Dungeons & Dragons based on unconfirmed leaks. In response to the speculation, Wizards of

3090-488: The Coast does not use the OGL in One D&;D , many of these creators will be unable to make content for the evergreen system–or will at least have to tiptoe around the law by only using the 5th Edition SRD to do so". ComicBook.com highlighted that "while not creating a new System Reference Document for One D&D wouldn't snuff out third-party material, it would certainly discourage publishing or force publishers to turn to

3193-593: The Coast if that revenue exceeds $ 50,000 annually; creators who make at least $ 750,000 in income annually will be required to pay a royalty starting in 2024. Linda Codega, for Io9 in January 2023, reported on the details from a leaked full copy of the OGL 1.1 including updated terms such as no longer authorizing use of the OGL1.0. Codega explained that while the original OGL granted a "perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive license" it also included language around authorized versions of

Open Game License - Misplaced Pages Continue

3296-544: The Coast stated in November 2022: "We will continue to support the thousands of creators making third-party D&D content with the release of One D&D in 2024. While it is certain our Open Game License (OGL) will continue to evolve, just as it has since its inception, we're too early in the development of One D&D to give more specifics on the OGL or System Reference Document (SRD) at this time". Following concerns raised by third-party Dungeons & Dragons creators on

3399-603: The Coast suspended all sales of its products for the Dungeons & Dragons games in PDF format from places such as OneBookShelf and its subsidiaries RPGNow and DriveThruRPG due to concerns of piracy and copyright infringement. ICv2 reported that OneBookShelf "took a hit to its volume when Wizards of the Coast abruptly halted sales of PDFs of its products" and that although Sean Patrick Fannon , RPG Marketing, Communications, and Publisher Services Manager for OneBookShelf, "acknowledged that

3502-429: The Coast to lower the royalty amount for creators who use their platform. Hall wrote, "Kickstarter has recently seen increased competition from alternate crowdfunding outlets, including Gamefound and Backerkit . A partnership such as this, formally enshrined into the OGL 1.1, would encourage the largest D&D crowdfunding campaigns to use Kickstarter’s services. [...] Kickstarter confirmed to Polygon that it has discussed

3605-605: The Coast to sell classic Dungeons & Dragons products. This site sold Dungeons & Dragons products from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons through the 4th Edition of the game. In 2015, OneBookShelf launched a new card creator web application as part of DriveThruCards in partnership with Paizo Publishing for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. The "card creator allows fans of PACG to create their own card, which can be purchased and printed for $ 0.50 each. You can either keep your build private so that it

3708-452: The Coast would negotiate with the author to license or purchase their creations". As of 2019, content can now be based on other Wizards of the Coast intellectual property such as Ravenloft , Eberron , and Ravnica . After the success of the DMsGuild, OneBookShelf continued to partner with other publishers to allow individuals to create and sell content based on intellectual property on

3811-497: The Coast" and that "options for content range from new monsters, to NPCs, to locations, to entire Forgotten Realms adventures and campaigns. The creator can set any price on their content - or give it away for free - with the only caveat being that Wizards of the Coast and OneBookShelf take a 50% cut of the proceeds". VentureBeat reported that content on DMsGuild is "available for D&D video game developers to buy. [...] According to D&D spokesperson Greg Tito, Wizards of

3914-530: The Coast. OneBookShelf did not originally have an offensive content policy. In 2015, "DriveThruRPG was involved in a controversy due its decision to sell a title called Tournament of Rapists . DriveThruRPG was initially criticized for its slow reaction to complaints about the offensiveness of the product [...], and the product was eventually removed from the store". This led to the creation of an offensive content policy for all of OneBookShelf's platforms. Wieck said: So, going forward, our offensive content policy

4017-515: The Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content". The OGL defines two forms of content: Use of another company's Product Identity is considered breach of the licensing agreement. The OGL (v1.0a) was originally published by Wizards of the Coast in 2000 to license the use of portions of

4120-581: The D&D. [...] In hindsight, I wonder if it might simply have been better to [let the OGL die] rather than guilting the company into crafting a Frankenstein's monster of an open license that ended up pleasing basically nobody. On January 12, 2016, Wizards of the Coast released the 5th Edition SRD under v1.0a of the OGL, marking a return to the Open Gaming format. This SRD was later revised and rereleased as SRD 5.1 in May 2016. Content creators can alternatively utilize

4223-540: The DMs Guild showing women and monsters in sexualized outfits or in various states of nudity". The company responded that "the OneBookShelf team stands by our decision to request adjustments to the art in question in this recent scenario [...]. However, we agree we want to be fair in how such standards are applied, which includes examining any internal biases that might have affected past decisions too. We're still very much in

Open Game License - Misplaced Pages Continue

4326-503: The DMs Guild" which "uses a separate license" and requires a 50% cut of the proceeds. Following the statement released by Wizards of the Coast in December 2022, Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com , wrote: "Wizards noted that this royalty should impact less than 20 'creators,' which include major publishing companies like Kobold Press and Ghostfire Gaming". Chase Carter, for Dicebreaker , commented that "this vision of an updated OGL paves

4429-722: The DriveThruRPG website. The number of programs grew rapidly. As of August 2020, there are nearly 30 programs, including ones with well-known publishers like Chaosium, Mongoose Publishing, Pinnacle Entertainment Group and White Wolf. In April 2019, it was announced that DriveThruRPG had partnered with Astral Virtual TableTop (Astral) and the virtual tabletop platform received a major update. OneBookShelf said that content "purchased through any DriveThru site, including DriveThruRPG and Dungeon Master's Guild" can be imported and shared in Astral. In October 2021, Astral's founder Tom Lackemann left

4532-466: The OGL 1.0(a) and the suits in Hasbro will not allow everyone to make off with their name and numbers. [...] Wizards of the Coast is doing some incredible spin doctoring in order to lay the groundwork to try to salvage the situation that they find themselves in". Polygon highlighted that "despite Wizards' apparent course change, response on Twitter to the publisher's statement seems just as strongly negative as

4635-516: The OGL and similar documents are sometimes collectively referred to as the " open gaming movement". The OGL led to the development of the stand-alone Pathfinder Roleplaying Game which is a modified version of the 3.5 game. James Maliszewski, for The Escapist , commented that the OGL also helped launch the Old School Revival movement and that "by 2002, the idea of using the SRD to reverse engineer

4738-518: The OGL have been placed on hold due to" the terms in the leak. Many designers had also reported considering switching role-playing game systems entirely. As part of a grassroots campaign protesting against the reported terms of the new OGL, over 66,000 people have signed the "#OpenDND" internet petition within days of its launch. This included "several well-known D&D community members" such as " Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus writer M.T. Black, prominent D&D streamer Mark Hulmes (who recently ran

4841-425: The OGL or even establish another GSL-alike is, in my opinion, a good decision". Public copyright license A public license or public copyright license is a license by which a copyright holder as licensor can grant additional copyright permissions to any and all persons in the general public as licensees. By applying a public license to a work, provided that the licensees obey the terms and conditions of

4944-405: The OGL states it is perpetual, it does not state that it is irrevocable. In an update to the article, Walsh wrote that past statements by Wizards of the Coast make "very clear that Wizards always thought of this as a contract with obligations for both sides [...]. Unlike a bare license without consideration, an offer to contract like this cannot be revoked unilaterally once it has been accepted, under

5047-723: The OGL viewed by io9 is indeed the final OGL planned for One D&D , it would have seismic consequences for the thriving ecosystem that surrounds Dungeons & Dragons ". Hoffer commented, "although it's debatable whether earlier versions of the OGL can actually be revoked or deauthorized [...], the intent of the new OGL is to force publishers to comply with the new OGL, with its easily revocable status and its tiered royalty structure". Charlie Hall, for Polygon , commented that "if enforced as written, io9 reports, it could put revenue streams for companies like Pathfinder maker Paizo, Kobold Press, Green Ronin, and others in jeopardy". Hall also highlighted that Kickstarter negotiated with Wizards of

5150-426: The OGL, most notably Paizo". Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com , stated that "this is a major change of pace for Wizards of the Coast and seems to be a surprising end to a controversy that had raged for weeks, drawing attention from mainstream news sites. It's a huge victory for the wider D&D community". Charlie Hall, for Polygon , also highlighted the major mainstream news coverage this controversy received and

5253-485: The OGL. If that had been a power that we wanted to reserve for Hasbro, we would have enumerated it in the license. I am on record numerous places in email and blogs and interviews saying that the license could never be revoked". Following an apology issued by Wizards of the Coast, the company released a new draft titled OGL 1.2 for public comment on January 19. It would have put some of the Dungeon & Dragons mechanics under

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5356-467: The OGL. The OGL should have been the contract to stand the test of time as a testament to the power of open source licensing for intellectual property. But then, as with most good things that are given away in the spirit of joyous creativity and hope for community, capitalism happened. [...] The commitment to putting the updated D&D rules into the Creative Commons rather than trying to re-establish

5459-465: The ORC development process. Another initiative is from Free League Publishing, which announced two licenses, for its Year Zero game system and another for its upcoming fantasy RPG Dragonbane . On January 13, 2023, Wizards issued a response via D&D Beyond; this response did not contain the updated OGL which will be released at a later date. The statement walked back several changes to the OGL such as removing

5562-400: The Open Gaming concept, Wizards can establish a clear policy on what it will, and will not allow people to do with its copyrighted materials. Just that alone should spur a huge surge in independent content creation that will feed into the D&D network. Academics Benoît Demil and Xavier Lecocq, in the economic journal Revue d'économie industrielle , highlighted that a business goal of the OGL

5665-449: The SRD 5.1 under an irrevocable Creative Commons license ; it would also no longer attempt to deauthorize the OGL 1.0a. Milton Griepp, for ICv2 , reported that the events had led to an overwhelmingly negative response, constituting a PR disaster for Wizards of the Coast. Griepp commented that "it remains to be seen whether the steps WotC has taken will be sufficient to unwind the moves other companies have made to disassociate themselves from

5768-587: The blowback to its proposed changes to the OGL". Polygon also pointed out that much remains unknown including "how a near-final draft of the revised OGL got things so very, very wrong". Edwin Evans-Thirlwell, for The Washington Post , wrote that "pushback from fans, who criticized WotC’s response as far from an apology and a dismissal of their legitimate concerns, led WotC to backpedal further. A second bulletin Wednesday [on January 18] included more details about

5871-418: The change". Two more DriveThru digital storefronts, DriveThruComics and DriveThruFiction, were also launched in 2005. In 2007, it was reported that DriveThruRPG did $ 2 million in business annually. Wieck said "the business idea of ' first-mover advantage ' is more commonly discussed than that of second-mover advantage or being a fast-follower . Despite the many advantages that accrue to first-movers into

5974-466: The customers that had transactions during that period were processed on which server. [...] It said it had no information to indicate that encrypted credit card numbers of customers that did not make purchases during the period were taken, but could not rule it out". From February 2016 to March 2016, DriveThruRPG held a bounty program for high quality scans of old hard-to-find Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, modules and boxed sets. In November 2018, it

6077-473: The digital inventory. James Mathe said "the focus of the merger is providing the best experience for rpg fans. Combined with DriveThruRPG, we will now offer consumers over 9,000 titles from over 500 different publishers. Many of the titles have never been available in print or are no longer available in print". In 2008, the company took over Mongoose Publishing ’s Wargaming Online digital store and relaunched it as Wargame Vault. On April 6, 2009, Wizards of

6180-415: The entire 400-page SRD into the Creative Commons means that fans don't need to 'take [ Dungeons & Dragons ’] word for it.' That Brink would explicitly acknowledge the lack of trust between fans and publishers and Wizards of the Coast is incredible". In May 2024, Linda Codega now of Rascal commented that it appeared the Open Game License would not return following Wizards of the Coast's announcement that

6283-596: The flourishing of 'long tail,' 'indie' RPGs". Jason Wilson, for VentureBeat , said that "the DM’s Guild is my favorite project from the Dungeons & Dragons team in recent years. [...] The Dungeon Masters Adept program, [...], has resulted in other community writers producing official material on the Guild. We’ve seen how the Guild just expands on the official books. Now, with Eberron, we’re seeing how Wizards can use it to resurrect its past. [...] The DM’s Guild gives Wizards

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6386-400: The intention of the OGL was not "to fund major competitors and it wasn't intended to allow people to make D&D apps, videos, or anything other than printed (or printable) materials for use while gaming". In a statement to EN World , Dancey, former VP of Wizards of the Coast and the architect of OGL1.0, said, "my public opinion is that Hasbro does not have the power to deauthorize a version of

6489-404: The law of Washington (where they are located) and other states". Walsh stated that works already published "under OGL 1.0a are entitled to the benefit Wizards of the Coast promised them under that contract. But Wizards can revoke the offer of the OGL 1.0a as to new potential users who haven't yet accepted its terms". Kyle Orland, for Ars Technica , highlighted Walsh's analysis and commented that

6592-566: The leader. The ultimate goal was to establish 'd20' as a recognizable trademark, like 'VHS' or 'DVD'". In 2004, Wizards of the Coast addressed what would occur if the license was changed – the OGL "already defines what will happen to content that has been previously distributed using an earlier version, in Section 9. As a result, even if Wizards made a change you disagreed with, you could continue to use an earlier, acceptable version at your option. In other words, there's no reason for Wizards to ever make

6695-400: The leaked OGL 1.1, the proposed OGL 1.2 contained "no royalty payment, no financial reporting, no license-back, no registration, no distinction between commercial and non-commercial". The proposed OGL 1.2 would have de-authorized the OGL1.0a; it would also be "irrevocable, although there's still a severability clause should a part of the license is held to be unenforceable or invalid". Along with

6798-510: The leaked draft". The proposed OGL1.2 would ban "harmful, discriminatory, or illegal content" which Codega views as a good idea, however, Codega commented "in the wake of Spelljammer 's inclusion and public treatment of the Hadozee , it remains to be seen if D&D is even capable of moderating this kind of content in a way that will be respectful, inclusive, and progressive". Both Codega and Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com , highlighted that

6901-415: The license and "according to attorneys consulted for this article, the new language may indicate that Wizards of the Coast is rendering any future use of the original OGL void, and asserting that if anyone wants to continue to use Open Game Content of any kind, they will need to abide by the terms of the updated OGL, which is a far more restrictive agreement than the original OGL". The document also states that

7004-664: The license, copyright holders give permission for others to copy or change their work in ways that would otherwise infringe copyright law. Some public licenses, such as the GNU GPL and the CC BY-SA , are also considered free or open copyright licenses . However, other public licenses like the CC BY-NC are not open licenses, because they contain restrictions on commercial or other types of use. Public copyright licenses do not limit their licensees. In other words, any person can take advantage of

7107-419: The license. The former Creative Commons (CC) Developing Nations License was not a public copyright license, because it limited licensees to those in developing nations . Current Creative Commons licenses are explicitly identified as public licenses. Any person can apply a CC license to their work, and any person can take advantage of the license to use the licensed work according to the terms and conditions of

7210-429: The move was a negative for PDF sales, he said that Wizards of the Coast was 'not even close' to half the company’s sales". In 2010, OneBookShelf launched a print on demand program and then in 2012, the company launched a new digital storefront called DriveThruCards for custom card products. In 2013, OneBookShelf was once again allowed to sell Dungeons & Dragons products through a new partnership with Wizards of

7313-546: The nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization". In June 2019, co-founder Mathe passed away. Wieck wrote "well before the iPhone, iPad, or the Kindle, James recognized the opportunity for RPG publishers to reach more fans through digital versions of their titles. By 2004, when I and a few others started DriveThruRPG, we were the Johnny-come-lately to the pioneering work James had already done with RPGNow. Nevertheless, it

7416-399: The new company's CEO and Steve Wieck, CEO of OneBookShelf, will become president of the new company and join Roll20's board of directors . The combined company's name was not initially announced. In 2023, it was revealed that the company's name is now Wolves of Freeport, named after Wieck's EverQuest guild. In July 2023, Wolves of Freeport updated the marketplace guidelines to restrict

7519-426: The new draft language scales back many of the most controversial portions of the original leaked update [...]. The new draft language also explicitly notes that the new license is 'perpetual, non-exclusive, and irrevocable,' with only a few technical sections being eligible for modification in the future". On January 27, 2023, Wizards of the Coast outlined the feedback received from over 15,000 survey submissions during

7622-425: The old license to make products based on the old ruleset that was published under OGL v1.0a (even if upcoming rules changes are covered more directly by OGL v1.1)". In November 2022, Game Rant commented that "many players are not happy with the implication" of the OGL discontinuation rumor as "tons of creators and companies have made their living on selling third-party Dungeons and Dragons homebrew. If Wizards of

7725-424: The open comment for OGL1.2: "88% do not want to publish TTRPG content under OGL 1.2", "89% are dissatisfied with deauthorizing OGL 1.0a", "86% are dissatisfied with the draft VTT policy" and "62% are satisfied with including Systems Reference Document (SRD) content in Creative Commons, and the majority of those who were dissatisfied asked for more SRD content in Creative Commons". As a result, Wizards decided to release

7828-453: The original OGL "is very narrow" and includes "elements that are not copyrightable in the first place" – agreeing to the OGL "almost certainly means you have fewer [ sic ] rights to use elements of Dungeons and Dragons than you would otherwise. For example, absent this agreement, you have a legal right to create a work using noncopyrightable elements of D&D or making fair use of copyrightable elements". However, Walsh highlights

7931-410: The original OGL, many licensed publishers will have to completely overhaul their products and distribution in order to comply with the updated rules. Large publishers who focus almost exclusively on products based on the original OGL, including Paizo , Kobold Press , and Green Ronin , will be under pressure to update their business model incredibly fast". Codega highlighted that "if the original license

8034-428: The original creator". ICv2 commented that the leaked OGL has several controversial parts including prohibiting "commercial publication for virtual tabletop platforms" and that while it "grants ownership of the OGL works to their creator" it also "gives WotC the perpetual, irrevocable right to use their works in any way it sees fit without payment". Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com in January 2023, stated that "if

8137-477: The original work) but not duplicates. A subset of public copyright licenses which aim for no restrictions at all like public domain ("full permissive"), are public domain-like licenses . The 2000 released WTFPL license is a short public domain like software license . The 2009 released CC0 was created as public domain license for all content with compatibility with also law domains (e.g. Civil law of continental Europe ) where dedicating into public domain

8240-402: The out-of-print AD&D took root on Dragonsfoot and other old school forums". Academics Benoît Demil and Xavier Lecocq, in the economic journal Revue d'économie industrielle in 2014, stated that the OGL had an immediate impact on the tabletop role-playing industry with an increase in new TTRP publications where the "majority of the new entrants adopted" the d20 license; d20 products sold at

8343-461: The path forward, along with a mea culpa from [Kyle] Brink, the executive producer, on behalf of his team". Evans-Thirlwell highlighted the release of the proposed OGL 1.2 which will have open comment available for two weeks, however, "some say the damage is already done. [...] Whether you view the original OGL as a mystic talisman or smoke-and-mirrors, WotC appears to have committed an irreversible act of self-sabotage in trying to replace it — squandering

8446-541: The possibility that it may have an impact on the success of upcoming film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves , scheduled for release in March 2023. Linda Codega, for Io9 in January 2023, wrote that the deauthorization of the OGL 1.0a had been a hard line for many fans so "concessions Wizards and D&D make in this announcement are huge" and that "this is a huge victory for the fans". Codega highlighted Kyle Brink, Executive Producer for D&D, who stated "that putting

8549-603: The potential changes to the OGL, in December 2022, Wizards of the Coast released additional details on the proposed OGL 1.1 which would have gone into effect in 2023. It would have clarified that it only applies to "printed media or static electronic files (like epubs and PDFs)" and "only covers material created for use in or as TTRPGs"; OGL 1.1 would not cover other content such as video games or virtual tabletops (VTTs). Content creators using OGL 1.1 would have been required "to put an official OGL badge on their products". Revenue related to OGL content would have been reported to Wizards of

8652-545: The prestige accumulated over 20 years in a matter of weeks". Linda Codega, for Io9 , wrote that "the commitment to create an irrevocable license under the Creative Commons foundation seems like a good step towards making that happen, and it would not have occurred if Dungeons & Dragons creators, influencers, fans, and third party publishers had universally come together to reject the proposed OGL 1.1". They also highlighted that Wizards continues to have "a firm stance on bigoted and hateful content—something that people praised in

8755-407: The process of listening, both personally and professionally, so we hope the community will afford us some patience and time in adjusting and improving our own processes and guidelines". In July 2020, Wizards of the Coast added a sensitivity disclaimer to some of their legacy products for sale on DriveThruRPG and DMsGuild. Many of these products feature cultures inspired by Asia , Mesoamerica and

8858-653: The project with OneBookShelf "continuing to oversee and maintain Astral’s current services". At the same time, it was announced that Astral would no longer be in active development and its marketplace would shutdown. Following the announced merger between OneBookShelf and Roll20 in July 2022, it was announced that Astral was scheduled to shut down in August 2022. In 2015, Paste reported that "RPGs can be expensive, so while PDFs can be harder to pass around or to look up rules on, they are

8961-554: The proposed OGL 1.2, Wizards released a separate virtual tabletop (VTT) policy. On January 27, 2023, Wizards of the Coast announced that following feedback during the open comment for OGL1.2 they had decided to release the System Reference Document 5.1 (SRD 5.1) under an irrevocable Creative Commons license ( CC-BY-4.0 ) effective immediately and would no longer pursue deauthorizing the OGL1.0a. Those individuals, groups and publishing companies that license their works under

9064-416: The proposed OGL1.2 would de-authorize OGL1.0a. Hoffer commented that de-authorization is "one major sticking point" as it is "seen as a hard line for many creators and third party publishers". Hoffer wrote that Brink framed de-authorization as necessary to enforce the "'No Hateful or Harmful Content' clause in the new OGL". Kyle Orland, for Ars Technica , stated that "aside from the OGL v1.0a deauthorization,

9167-736: The release of the OGL "created a major shift in the RPG industry" and "led to a boom in the RPG industry in the early 2000s". They commented that "the emergence of open source licensing for RPGs facilitates user creativity and innovation, as dozens of D&D -compatible supplements have been created under the Open Game License". Kit Walsh, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 2023, highlighted that roleplaying games have aspects that are copyrightable, such as creative expression, and aspects that are not, such as functional descriptions of game mechanics. Walsh commented that

9270-684: The relevant license. According to the Open Knowledge Foundation , a public copyright license does not limit licensors either. Under this definition, license contract texts specific to a single licensor (like the UK government’s Open Government License, which would have to be edited to be used by other licensors) are not considered public copyright licenses, although they may qualify as open licenses. Some organisations approve public copyright licenses that meet certain criteria, in particular being free or open licenses. The Free Software Foundation keeps

9373-434: The reporting feature is live, we will review titles already on the marketplace that are reported by customers. There will be no "grandfathering in" of past content. Also, in 2015, OnceBookShelf had a credit card breach and hackers "used the OneBookShelf's servers to launch DDOS attack on other sites". ICv2 reported that "one of two load-balanced servers was compromised, the company said, and it had no way of knowing which of

9476-400: The revised 5th Edition would have an SRD released under the Creative Commons – a move they considered both "fascinating" and "sad". Codega opined that "the Open Game License was genuinely a revolutionary contract—established two years before the Creative Commons license was developed—and tabletop games across the board, not just D&D, benefited from the free and unrestricted usage granted in

9579-507: The royalty structure and the license back language and indicated that other forms of expression, such as VTTs and livestreams, would not be impacted by the updated OGL. ComicBook.com commented that "the statement did not address whether the new OGL would attempt to 'de-authorize' previous versions of the OGL". Io9 stated that "there will be no backing down entirely for Wizards of the Coast. They've committed too much time, money, and effort into their IP to allow it to be written off totally under

9682-410: The situation". Starburst commented that "historically when the owners of Dungeons and Dragons attempt to restrict what people can do with the game, it leads to a boom in other tabletop roleplaying games. This is happening right now". Both Kobold Press and MCDM Productions announced upcoming new tabletop RPG systems with both stating their respective systems would be open games. Paizo then announced

9785-466: The software industry". Publishers could also use the separate d20 System Trademark License to include a logo indicating compatibility. In an interview, Dancey stated: I think there's a very, very strong business case that can be made for the idea of embracing the ideas at the heart of the Open Source movement and finding a place for them in gaming. [...] One of my fundamental arguments is that by pursuing

9888-441: The third edition of Dungeons & Dragons , via a System Reference Document (SRD), thus allowing third-party publishers to produce compatible material. The SRD "included the basic rules and elements of D&D, such as classes, monsters, spells, and magic items, enabling the creation of legal support products for the game". This move was spearheaded by Ryan Dancey and it was "modeled on the various open-source licenses used in

9991-441: The use of generative artificial intelligence which will go into effect on July 31. Written work "primarily" created by "AI-generated writing will not be allowed" and "standalone artwork products that utilize AI-generated art" will not be allowed. All products that use AI-generated content are now required to report that in the "Creation Method". In 2013, OneBookShelf launched a new digital storefront in partnership with Wizards of

10094-604: Was announced that in February 2019 the RPGNow digital storefront would be shut down and redirected to the DriveThruRPG digital storefront. On February 12, 2019, OneBookShelf announced that it would no longer work with Zak Smith "after multiple women publicly accused Smith of abuse. [...] The company went on to say that its own portion of any revenue generated by Smith’s existing titles already up for sale on its storefront will be donated to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network),

10197-499: Was established in 2001 by James Mathe. Academics Sebastian Deterding and José Zagal wrote that "in the beginning, the bestselling products on RPGNow were nearly always d20 products. Mathe made attempts to reach out to established publishers of other types of games, but many were hesitant about selling digital versions, worried that would increase piracy or cannibalize existing print sales. Nevertheless, RPGNow recorded better than 10% growth in every year of its operation". DriveThruRPG

10300-426: Was established in 2004 by Mike Todd, Chris McDonough and Steve Wieck . In 2005, DriveThruRPG abandoned selling DRM protected products. The Washington Post reported that "customers hated the hassle of dealing with it, and it didn't offer very good protection against piracy, Wieck said. Now, the site sells unprotected PDFs with a faint 'watermark' with the customer's name on every page. Sales rose 30 percent after

10403-459: Was removed from the DMsGuild platform for "distinctively sexualized" artwork. "After the adventure was pulled and the DMs Guild released its statement, many DMs Guild creators and D&D fans spoke out about the adventure's removal and a wider discussion of artwork used in Dungeons & Dragons material. Laura Hirsbrunner, another prominent DMs Guild creator, compiled a number of art pieces used in official D&D materials and available for use on

10506-515: Was through the resulting friendly business rivalry between DriveThruRPG and RPGNow that I got to know and soon came to respect James. [...] James was a very smart entrepreneur in a hobby business full of smart people. He embodied the best of the US Midwestern virtues of work ethic, honesty, and fairness. He's gone too soon". In June 2020, OneBookShelf came "under scrutiny" after a queer themed adventure by ENNie Award nominated designer Oliver Clegg

10609-423: Was to have competitors institutionalize a standardized rule system – "if WOTC could get more people in the industry to use the same system, players would learn only one system and be able to migrate from product to product and game to game without learning and transaction costs. While it would reduce the number of original gaming systems in the market, the idea was to increase the audience for everybody, especially for

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