Just some clarifications...

[zwyt]

Reading through the posts here on the forums it looks like some people are getting a little bit of a wrong idea about the 4E GSL. I don't work for any company or anything but I have followed the GSL since it was released and have been a part of Discussions on the subject on a few other forums. Goodman Games could from my understanding produce material for both 4e under the GSL and under the OGL and they could do it under the company name. However they cannot produce the same product line for both the OGL and the GSL. So for instance if Dungeon Crawl Classics goes GSL then OGL Dungeon Crawl Classics can no longer be produced OGL, if they don't go GSL then they can still produce the product line under the OGL. From my understanding Wizards can do nothing about OGL publishing because it is a perpetual, self renewing license. However they can and are putting a great amount of restrictions on what can be done under the GSL, many 3rd party publishers are either dropping away from the GSL or only producing product under it in a limited fashion.

Necromancer Games for instance has chosen not too produce their Tome of Horrors for 4e but to do it for the upcoming Pathfinder RPG they are still going to produce product for 4e just different product lines these changes have not yet been announced on their website but there is much discussion in theri forums about these plans. Necromancer's Clark Peterson is a lawyer himself from my understanding and is looking at things quite carefully. The big problem with the GSL is that it can be changed with pretty much no notice and if you publish something under it you can never ever do anything else with that product even if the GSL expires and no longer exists. If Wizard's decides that you are in violation of the GSL they can yank the rug out from under you without any justification except for their decision that you are in violation and with the power to change the GSL on a whim if they want this could be for anything or even for nothing. It would be wise for any company to think long and hard before publishing anything under the GSL because you would be effectively giving away your intellectual property and your right to ever do anything with it again... ever. One might question whether this was legal or not but before you can publish under the GSL you have to sign a statement of agreement to its terms and I suppose once you do that your hooked if you actually publish something under it.

Anyway you might already have all of these facts but it looked like there was a little confusion going on so I decided drop some hopefully useful info. It is somewhat of an interesting time on the gaming scene these days as everybody decides just what to do with everything that Wizards of the Coast is sending at them. 4e D&D seems to be in quite a bit of tumult as well with at least a good portion of the fan base walking away in favor of other systems. It is probably to early to actually make this statement but the future of the D&D line may be less secure at this moment in history than it has been for quite some time.

Charles