The draft OGL 1.2 is now out and I’m starting this thread, not to give my own opinion on the matter, but to provide a list of resources from D&D community members who give commentary as lawyers or as people who have consulted with them. I think it is important for anyone who wants to understand their position on this matter to have a decent understanding of what the language of the OGL 1.2 says and what WoTC and or cannot do with it. And, while all of the individuals below have different opinions and biases about the OGL 1.2, I think they have similar things to say about the specifics of what the individual provisions in the new contract are important to scrutinize. (Note: I don’t know whether any of these people are lawyers in real life. I don’t have the time to vet all of their claims regarding their credentials. I found that there are commonalities in what they say that I find interesting and plausible and that’s why I’m posting them here.)
Noah “My Lawyer Friend” Downs’ Medium post about the OGL 1.2
It’s my hope that people use this thread as a basis for understanding the new contract we’re provided. I’ve been seeing people on these forums tear each other apart for weeks now without any real discourse on what we as a community should demand. The new OGL 1.2 release has the potential to divide and, worse yet, mislead people into thinking the contract says things it doesn’t or promise things that it doesn’t. Whether the contract is good or bad in your eyes is up to you, but I think we should all have a generally agreed upon idea of what it actually says. And I hope, probably vainly, that establishing a basis of agreed upon facts can at least simmer down the tone of these conversations, so that we attack arguments rather than people.
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Hi All,
The draft OGL 1.2 is now out and I’m starting this thread, not to give my own opinion on the matter, but to provide a list of resources from D&D community members who give commentary as lawyers or as people who have consulted with them. I think it is important for anyone who wants to understand their position on this matter to have a decent understanding of what the language of the OGL 1.2 says and what WoTC and or cannot do with it. And, while all of the individuals below have different opinions and biases about the OGL 1.2, I think they have similar things to say about the specifics of what the individual provisions in the new contract are important to scrutinize. (Note: I don’t know whether any of these people are lawyers in real life. I don’t have the time to vet all of their claims regarding their credentials. I found that there are commonalities in what they say that I find interesting and plausible and that’s why I’m posting them here.)
Noah “My Lawyer Friend” Downs’ Medium post about the OGL 1.2
https://medium.com/@MyLawyerFriend/lets-take-a-minute-to-talk-about-d-d-s-updated-open-game-license-ogl-1-2-5b95fe8889b2
Roll of Law’s (long) sentence-by-sentence breakdown of the OGL 1.2 and WoTC’s fan content policy
https://youtu.be/wO1Y0Q25rDI
The Rules Lawyer’s summary of what the OGL 1.2 says
https://youtu.be/2DKTKI_Kr5k
D&D Shorts’ breakdown of the OGL 1.2 (in which he says he has consulted with his personal attorneys on what the contract says)
https://youtu.be/29gKTAfh1tk
It’s my hope that people use this thread as a basis for understanding the new contract we’re provided. I’ve been seeing people on these forums tear each other apart for weeks now without any real discourse on what we as a community should demand. The new OGL 1.2 release has the potential to divide and, worse yet, mislead people into thinking the contract says things it doesn’t or promise things that it doesn’t. Whether the contract is good or bad in your eyes is up to you, but I think we should all have a generally agreed upon idea of what it actually says. And I hope, probably vainly, that establishing a basis of agreed upon facts can at least simmer down the tone of these conversations, so that we attack arguments rather than people.