Thread by @Appelcline

The OGL 1.2 is out with a statement of deauthorization for the OGL 1.0a that has little to do with how the original contract was written. This seems to be part of a pattern of WotC rather emphatically and purposefully ignoring the spirit of their contracts in recent years. [1/8]

The saga really started in 2020 with Hickman and Weis and their new Dragonlance book. Wizards seemed to be withholding good-faith approval of their manuscript. They allegedly told the authors to stop sending it for approval! [2/8] dragonlancenexus.com/weis-hickman-f…

Meanwhile, after WotC tried to terminate Gale Force 9's license early (and couldn't), they allegedly started withholding good-faith approval of their products too! [3/8] icv2.com/articles/news/…

I'm not the only one going out about good faith, which is obviously vital to contractual partnerships. It was in the Gale Force 9 lawsuit, which said that WotC had breached their “implied duty of good faith and fair dealing”. [4/8]

Everyone settled in 2021. Weis and Hickman got to publish their first book (which was ALREADY WRITTEN when WotC tried to stick it in a drawer). Gale Force 9 came to some agreement with WotC. What had seemed like a disturbing trend looked like maybe it was an aberration. [5/8]

But now the whole OGL fiasco looks like more of the same. Existing contract. Clear expectations about what it meant, both among contracting parties and in the general public. And again WotC seems to be acting in bad faith, trying to create loopholes that likely don't exist. [6/8]

What is going on? Why has WotC so desperately begun working to find loopholes in existing contracts? And how do you partner with someone like that? How could you *ever* have trust in them to act in good faith at this point? [7/8]

Under OGL 1.2, WotC can terminate any user at their discretion at any time based on a morality clause that they administer. They've already said they can rewrite the license at any time. Given the last two years, what is the future likely to look like for licensees? [8/8]

As an addendum: the new contract says, "No, we really can't revoke it or change it this time".

I actually think the OGL 1.2 would be a pretty good contract if it came from most companies. And if it weren't built on the corpse of 1.0a.

But given the context ...

And a PPS: if Wizards wants to offer protection to their new licensees, the way to do so would be with third-party, neutral arbitration related to the morality clause and the ability to resolve problems, not immediate license termination.