Thread by @JohnNephew

This EFF article making the rounds is well worth reading, but I think it has some significant shortcomings in understanding the #OGL and its role in RPG publishing.
eff.org/deeplinks/2023… via @eff

I think it missed the boat on understanding the role of both Product Identity and Open Game Content. The original D&D 3.0 SRD contained ZERO product identity. Designating it ALL as OGC meant that no one had to parse the legal minutiae of "is this specific thing protected by

copyright?" -- just use it.

The trade-off was that we agreed to designate Open Game Content in our material in turn.

Product Identity, in contrast, was a term that gave publishers confidence to add their own material to the body of OGC without for example diluting trademarks or

providing an open license to creative elements over which they wished/needed to retain control.

Product Identity was not something WotC needed -- it was something to give publishers LIKE US confidence to designate OGC without fear of giving away everything. This was especially

important when third party licensing was involved.

If say you want to make an OGC Lord of the Rings game, you want to have an OGC game description of Gandalf but you might make the name "Gandalf" Product Identity. Someone could cut and paste your entire game description of

Gandalf, change his name to "Steve," and insert him as a powerful wizard in their own game setting, as long as they complied with the OGL.

The #OGL is an agreement within game publishing field about how to do things -- how to borrow and share game material; how to file off serial numbers without raising someone's hackles (b/c they designed Product Identity to tell you which specific serial numbers were a concern).

People DO designate as Open Game Content things that absolutely are subject to/protected by copyright! Nothing requires a participant to designate any Product Identity, and OGC includes"any additional content clearly identified as Open Game Content by the Contributor."

You can make a picture, a poem, or a musical score and release it as OGC if you like. And anyone who complies with the OGL can add it to their derivative work, regardless of whether or not that specific situation might qualify as Fair Use.

From the beginning, the #OGL was not simply about what we could take from WotC; it was about helping creators confidently share and perpetuate a commons of gaming that was in fact obstructed by legitimate concerns about legal ambiguities and potential litigation.