Melkior_King wrote...
As far as WOTC is concerned, I wouldn't expect them to take much interest in restricting distribution of a 10+ year-old game. They seem to have released prior versions of the D&D gaming system (including 3.0) to the public domain, or at least they're not enforcing their rights.
3.0 (and by it's extention 3.5) are governed under the Open Gaming Licence and the d20 System License and, as of June 2008, the Game System License. Any property can build off of the System Reference Document (basically the core mechanics minus character creation, advancement, and any content WotC deemed copyrighted works, thus you'll find no creatures like Beholders and no names referencing Greyhawk in the spells, etc.) It was rolled out this way from the get go.
This use is perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive as long as the use is accompanied by a copy of the OGL with all the Copyrights updated to credit the contributors of all OGC that was used. This is why you see 3e related content being produced and why Pathfiner exists without any legal maneuvering by WotC or Hasbro. The OGL does not extend to computer media, which is governed under different and exclusive licensing.
I believe WotC did make some dependency clause with 4e that basically stated that if one produced any 4e related content, they could not also produce any content under 3e's OGL any longer.
Modifié par Malagant, 14 avril 2013 - 09:03 .
