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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Two For Two - Or is it "Oh!" For Two?

The author of the OSRIC Players Reference (NOT to be confused with the OSRIC Player's Guide) and The Mazes & Perils OSR clone / rip / pilfered from the bones of the Original D&D Boxed set and Holmes Basic, has managed to have both of his projects pulled from OneBookShelf / RPGNow.

Or maybe he had them both pulled on his own.  Somehow I doubt that.  Because if that was the case, he never would have put his second project up on OBS - he would have learned his lesson with his first f' up.

If you want to do a bunch of house rules using copyrighted material, ignoring the OGL, go at it.  DON'T try to distribute it into the RPG wilds, even for free, especially not via a company like OBS and it's like.  Why put a company like OBS in the possible sights of WotC / Hasbro because your ego prevents you from following the rules (OGL / copyright law).  It has to be ego.  Even stupidity has a failsafe mechanism.  Besides, stupid wouldn't have been able to put together the packages he did, which, although far from perfect, were certainly serviceable.

Next time your ego demands that you ignore the law (and the polite niceties of the OSR in general), host it yourself.  That way your ego can get stroked and the lawyers can cut out the middle man when the cease and desist comes your way.


2 comments:

  1. I haven't seen either product. I also don't want to protect the offender. However, from what little I've read, he's violated copyright rules on artwork due to blatant choices. Where did he cross the bounds of the OGL?

    ReplyDelete
  2. See the comments to my Friday post (from iPhone)

    ReplyDelete

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