OGL 1.2 Is Released By Wizards Of The Coast For Public Review: Wizards of the Coast has officially released the public with OGL 1.2, the most recent version of their Open Gaming License. Wizards apologized and reworked OGL 1.1 after leaked draughts caused outrage throughout the whole Dungeons & Dragons community by imposing a 25% fee on authors and opened the door to content theft.
Days later, D&D executive producer Kyle Brink apologized once more while also promising that the next version of OGL would be created with input from the D&D community.
In order to achieve this, Wizards of the Coast has made OGL 1.2 available for discussion. According to the website for D&D Beyond, “There is no distinction between commercial and non-commercial use, no payment of royalties, no financial reporting, no license-back, and no registration.
Nothing will change regarding any OGL 1.0a content you have already published. That will always be OGL 1.0a licensed.” This was a major issue with content being published for D&D by independent publishers and smaller creators.
Starting our playtest with a Creative Commons license and an irrevocable new OGL. https://t.co/fsnasY6y4Q
— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) January 19, 2023
However, some provisions in OGL 1.2 continue to worry some players and creatives. Wizards acknowledged that content released under OGL 1.0a is secure in a post on D&D Beyond, but OGL 1.2 still revokes the original OGL, which some fans are calling a “non-starter.”
Hateful content was never a problem, according to authors, and OGL 1.2 gives Wizards the last say over what gets published and what doesn’t. Wizards claim that it needs to revoke the prior license in order to impose new protection measures that restrict it.
In addition, OGL 1.2 mandates that users give up their right to a jury or class-action trial in the event of a legal disagreement. While players are unlikely to care, major third-party publishers are concerned by these conditions because they suggest that Wizards is once again trying to usurp the authority of creators.
On Twitter and Reddit, people are still criticizing the new license, but the atmosphere is still largely unfavorable. Changes are not only conceivable but also expected because Wizards did state that this will be an iterative process and that this paper is still only a draught. In the upcoming days, we’ll see how far WotC is ready to budge.
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