Editing Open Game License (section)

== Version 1.1 ==
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{{topquote| A couple of last thoughts. First, we won’t be able to release the new OGL today, because we need to make sure we get it right, but it is coming. Second, you’re going to hear people say that [[Paizo|they]] won, and [[Wizards of the Coast|we]] lost because [[Bullshit|making your voices heard forced us to change our plans.]] [[What|Those people will only be half right. They won—and so did we.]] |Wizards of the Coast, trying to cover it’s tracks}}

In late 2022, an update to the OGL was leaked, no denial was forthcoming just a "coming soon Jan 13th 2023" ([[Just as planned|of course it was going to come out on Friday the 13th, the bastards)]] and it looks like Hasbro/WOTC is perched to shit the bed.  
[[Games Workshop|The siren call of rent-seeking can only be abjured for so long]].  Among the [[Derp|improvements]] in this leaked document are:

* Revoking OGL 1.0a.  Already-published stuff won't get retroactively changed, but after January Hasbro's lawyers won't respect new material published under OGL 1.0a. 
** This is despite the fact the OGL specifically states it's perpetual, so [[Skub|this will go well in court]] because while WotC is absolutely going to try and argue perpetual =/= non-revocable, a good number of countries that aren't America (most notably the majority of the Commonwealth countries) have precedents to the opposite (mostly in the form of a perpetual lease for land, either way the use of "perpetual" in contracts has long been interpreted to be almost identical to making it non-revocable).
* "Commercial" and "Non-Commercial" versions. [[Fail|They literally state if you get paid by "your brother doing your chores for a week" then you must use the Commercial version.]]
* If you make gross revenue over $50,000 in one year from your combined OGL stuff, you must [[Blam|voluntarily]] give WOTC a copy of your ledgers for them to audit. [[Wat|They call this "leveling-up"]].
* If you make gross revenue over $750,000 in one year from your combined OGL stuff, [[Money|you gotta give Hasbro 20%-25% of whatever's above 750,000]]. Note the use of ''gross'', not ''net'' - that means it's taken before factoring in expenses, meaning that Hasbro can cuck you out of being able to pay to manufacture what got you to this level of revenue in the first place. 
** This is the part of the OGL that have people rightfully worried that this is anti-competitive, which is even more serious than the aforementioned attempt to revoke a perpetual contract. [[Cyberpunk| Though given how many monopolies and oligopolies have cropped up in recent times]], [[Grimdark | Hasbro could easily just lobby out of it...]]
* WOTC owns the copyright, trademark and patent for anything licensed by OGL 1.1.  So do you, but if you're good enough then Hasbro spins up the printing engines (or grants the license to any of their partners) and you get to compete against them, good fucking luck.
* No more software, not even a form-filling PDF, "games and supplements in printed media and static electronic file formats" can be made without Uncle Wizards' permission.  Among the formats they explicitly name as no-go are: videos, games, novels, apps, graphic novels, music, songs, dances and [[Wat|pantomimes]]. [[Cegorach|Yeah, fuck mimes amirite?]]
* WOTC can revoke your license at any time. The license states that this is mainly aimed at "bigoted and other brand-damaging content," but considering how anti-competitive the rest of the license is and how these criteria are not spelled out, it effectively means they can revoke your license on a whim. [[SJW|Have a squeaky clean supplement but say mean things about Hasbro on twitter? They'll find an excuse to get your content pulled.]]
* Much of the new license is written from a very [[Fifteen views of Asscrack|Amerifat]] perspective and relies on clauses that are outright illegal in actual first world countries (and even a number of supposedly third world ones). See below for an example:
{{Topquote|Additionally, You waive any right to sue over Our decision on these issues. We’re aware that, if We somehow stretch Our decision of what is or is not objectionable under these clauses too far, We will receive community pushback and bad PR, and [[Bullshit|We’re more than open to being convinced that We made a wrong decision]]. But nobody gets to use the threat of a lawsuit as part of an attempt to convince Us.|Wizards of the Coast, failing to realise that a large number of countries have significant restrictions on contracts enforcing one party to waive the right to sue the other, to the extent that including such a clause may [[Fail|invalidate the entire contract]].}}

To nobody's surprise, plenty of third-party publishing houses are jumping ship, having a fire sale on their D&D-related stock and looking for alternate systems to write for, if they're not deciding to make their own games. Companies that don't make D&D content but do publish under the OGL 1.0 are experiencing their own dilemmas about how to move forward, whether it be ditching the OGL altogether or scrapping together their own licensing (whether it be making their own or seeing how Creative Commons can be applied). You can just smell the "I told you so" smug coming off [[Paizo]] right now.

Well, that smugness only amplified tenfold when Paizo broke their silence and announced that they'd be collaborating with a number of fellow RPG devs to create their own '''Open RPG Creative License''', a system-agnostic license which would keep the spirit of OGL 1.0a alive that's not owned by Paizo or any of the other collaborators, but by a law firm that's had history representing publishers and has a co-founder who helped create the damn OGL...until they find a suitable owner to take it open-source similar to how Linux operates. And to top this all off, it's also been shortened to '''''[[Orc|ORC]]''''', which might be mere coincidence, but there's no way any neckbeard savvy enough would pass up the obvious jabs made.

Because who knew that people wouldn't just accept your forced attempt to make them pay you. Surely, they wouldn't just jump ship to the numerous other alternatives already existing? [[Warhammer Plus|It's not like this has ever]] [[4E|happened before in recent memory, right?]]

As expected, [[FAIL|WOTC backpedaled in the most limp-dicked fashion imaginable]], claiming that they're changing the new OGL to be less suffocating but not removing the clause that says they can change the agreement with 30 days' notice (meaning the changes mean jack shit since the original plan could just be reinstated the moment people forget), all while crowing that this was a win for both them and the community. The community was not convinced and, following reveals of more bullshit Wizards was trying to do behind everyone's back, grew even more riotous. 

=== Version 1.2 ===
A week after that shitstorm another PR apology came forth, this time from D&D Executive Producer Kyle Brink. This one didn't try to frame this all as some "misunderstanding", citing a couple major examples that wouldn't be affected by the OGL as well as proposing a draft copy for all of the public to view, scrutinize, and provide feedback on. On one hand, they managed to give ground on all the fees and mandatory earnings reports and have confirmed that certain core rules for the game are protected under the Creative Commons license and thus can never be grounds for lawsuit. On the other hand, there are still issues with the proposed license.

The concerns for this are several: The first is the whole VTT hill they're insistent on dying on, with several of the proposed restrictions being nonsensical (You can have macros to calculate things like the damage that [[Magic Missile]] does, but [[What|any visual elements that can't be replicated on the dinner table]] - codeword for any special visuals for spells, which is something most VTTs can't even support - are not considered protected under the new OGL, nor are any licensed images) and reek of trying to prevent any competitor VTTs from providing a better experience. The second is the terms for what they consider "harmful and hateful content", and we don't mean [[Racial Holy War|obvious shit]] like [[TSR#Since WotC's Buyout|someone trying to use a trademark you used to own to promote some really stupid racist shit]] or NFTs made from opportunistic grifters that aren't Hasbro. Without clear explanation on what qualifies as "harmful and hateful content" (to say nothing about how the definition can change in the blink of an eye as a result of any perceived [[SJW|cultural forever wars]]), it gives Wizards free reign to cancel whatever they see fit without owing any explanations to the affected parties - all because this new OGL being allegedly penned to protect their brand from such content. Of course, this is all on top of the great issue that Wizards can, at any point of their choosing, opt to cancel out any concessions they make by drafting a new version of the OGL since they've clearly stated their intent to cancel the 1.0a OGL and any content made once this version becomes official must use it.

Even this token effort at appeasement is under suspicion, though, as the promised way to comment and critique the proposed OGL changes ''still'' has to pass through the same system that D&D Beyond is built on, meaning surveys, and as such has '''zero''' transparency.  Which is to say, if fifty thousand people voted for WotC to shove the new OGL regardless of the changes, then what's to stop them from saying publicly that, golly gee, fifty thousand folks thought the changes were swell. Yeah.

<s>Whatever the ultimate result, the effects of needing to change it at all have already eroded a massive amount of trust people have had with the company, and there's no doubt that the upcoming [[One D&D]] will only be seeing a fraction of the fan support its predecessor had.</s> They surrendered to fan demand and cancelled the entire changing the OGL thing, cowering back into Hasbro's offices like a [[Troll|troll]] to a cave to figure out a Plan C for milking out cash. They even released the 5.1 SRD into the Creative Commons license, the equivalent of a boss dropping some very important loot while fleeing for their lives.