Tistur - GSoC 2008

So, Wizards of the Coast has released a license for 4E. And it seems like a lot of people aren't happy with it (including various companies - SJG seems to say "Hell, no."). One huge reason is that there is no backwards compatibility with the OGL. (The new SRD, by the way, is a joke. And I'm not laughing. Most importantly, to my mind, there is absolutely no way to reprint the core rules, which means when Wizards stops supporting 4E, it will die. I don't think it will attract the type of die-hard enthusiasts that still play 1st and 2nd editions, and if you can't get a new copy of the rules....)

And this brings me back to the GPL, and how the OGL was based on it. Now, when GPLV3 was released, there were people who didn't like it, understandably, to my mind. It closed too many "loopholes" for people's comfort, but brought the GPL closer to Stalllman's vision of truly "free" source code. The new GSL seems like what would happen if the GPLV4 was based on Microsoft's standard agreement.

Fortunately, like the GPL, the OGL can't be rescinded*:

Q: Can't Wizards of the Coast change the License in a way that I wouldn't like?

A: Yes, it could. However, the License already defines what will happen to content that has been previously distributed using an earlier version, in Section 9. As a result, even if Wizards made a change you disagreed with, you could continue to use an earlier, acceptable version at your option. In other words, there's no reason for Wizards to ever make a change that the community of people using the Open Gaming License would object to, because the community would just ignore the change anyway.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/oglfaq/20040123f

I am now very firmly in the "I won't buy from WotC" camp.

*And I am quite certain there is a quote about this, but I can't find it at the moment.