Euterpe Posted January 10, 2023 Posted January 10, 2023 Since this affects creators of entertainment and is directly gaming, I placed this in Entertainment. For context of those who do not know of Dungeons and Dragons 5e, the original Open Game License (OGL) has expanded the community to what it is today: Quote "The existing Open Game License (OGL) is a public copyright license that, with some reasonable restrictions, allows anyone to publish and sell royalty-free D&D materials. This open approach to game design has played a significant role in the game’s growing popularity in recent years." However, Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast new parent company, is looking to change this and the community of D&D at large by having creators agree to OGL 1.1: Quote "A number of beloved tabletop games — like Pathfinder 1E and 2E, 13th Age, Fudge, and Traveller — which use D&D as their backbone will either have to stop publishing new content altogether or pay 25 percent of all revenue to Wizards. And, it sounds like selling previously published content also won’t be possible under the terms of the OGL 1.1. For the largest content creators in the industry, Wizards will institute a 25 percent tax on all sales above $750,000. “This is anti-competitive, monopolistic behavior designed to crush small businesses that collectively employ hundreds of designers, writers, and artists,” the #OpenDND letter says regarding this specific facet. “Under this tax, it becomes impossible for creators to put books on game stores’ shelves or run Kickstarters for large audiences. Even though this only affects some companies in the space, those targeted are still tiny compared to Wizards of the Coast, which made $1.3 billion in 2021.” The new OGL also says that Wizards “can modify or terminate this agreement for any reason whatsoever, provided We give thirty (30) days’ notice.” So Wizards can essentially get any content published under this license removed from the internet within a month under the legal threat of copyright infringement. Anyone who uses a crowdfunding site must pay a “25 percent royalty on Qualifying Revenue” but Wizards has a preferred relationship with Kickstarter, which only incurs a 20 percent royalty fee. Director of Games at Kickstarter Jon Ritter clarified on Twitter that Wizards approached him about the changes and he thought it best to “advocate for creators” to get the discount. But there’s also the obvious truth that this means Kickstarter will in turn receive more revenue. The vast majority of these content creators will use Kickstarter simply because it is the cheaper option. Among the most controversial changes in OGL 1.1, however, is the requirement that, regardless of how much revenue the creator earns, they have to register their content with Wizards of the Coast and provide the company with a copy. It also grants Wizards a sweeping “nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sub-licensable, royalty-free license to use that content for any purpose.” In other words, if a person writes a really cool adventure under this license and makes $26 off of a few people buying it, but then it catches the eye of a game designer at Wizards, the company could technically use that content however it wants — without paying the creator." This article goes into more background but this is the gist. It has also been trending on Twitter for hours. My big question is: What's going to happen to my favorite web series Critical Role?!
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