First Draft of the ORC License Ready for Public Comment

Huzzah! Looking forward to seeing where the continuing conversation lands.

Y'all orc creators are doing great work.

Nice! Downloading now. Thank you for standing for the community.

WAAAAAAAGH!!

*Orc warcry* HUZZAH!

Good job, Paizo foreva!

I like what I'm seeing so far

For the horde!!!!

Ok, so the license is pretty much unreadable if you don't have a law degree. Are we now requiring content creators to hire a lawyer to navigate the license? Because the OGL v1.0 was super approachable even to laymen. This license seems a step backwards in terms of ease of use (irregardless of the actual licensing terms).

tldr: I can't judge whether this is a good license because I can't even get through the first page of it and understand it.

Ok, so the license is pretty much unreadable

That feedback all needs to go in their Discord channel, linked in the OP. It's not a Paizo license, and the people looking for feedback aren't reading the Paizo boards.

Looking good so far. I look forward to the legal advice of the many gamers who are practicing lawyers.:)

I'm not a lawyer and am able to read it. It's not much harder than the OGL IMO. My suggestion is to start with the AxE, then either skim the definitions or just skip to section II to start.

Were there specific things you didn't understand?

Wait you used my 60-day notice to cure or quit violations idea!

Section V clause a.

Ooooowwwweeeeee!!!

Yo, this is cool and all, but I'm more interested in how far we can take these themed acronyms!

The ORC has an AxE? Yeah baby!

Let's get this dude a Hostile ELigible Mandate. And of course they have a Writ of Authorized, Ratified CRitical Yield. Next, they'll need a Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logist--wait, no.

Ok, so the license is pretty much unreadable if you don't have a law degree. Are we now requiring content creators to hire a lawyer to navigate the license? Because the OGL v1.0 was super approachable even to laymen. This license seems a step backwards in terms of ease of use (irregardless of the actual licensing terms).

tldr: I can't judge whether this is a good license because I can't even get through the first page of it and understand it.

From Orc's AxE:

Why is the License so complicated?
o We wish it were less complicated too. We opted for simplicity wherever possible but when we were faced with a decision between precision or simplicity, we opted for precision. We wish it was simpler but slicing copyright in half is challenging. We want this to last for a very very long time and resist all imaginable legal challenges. If we could have found a way to make it simpler, we would have done so.

Well done, Paizo. Well done.

I'm into it. I see that Chaosium has ready planned a release of their core system to be released under the ORC coming soon. Neat!
Open gaming!

Huh. This can't be a draft, it has the words "Draft Only Feedback Requested" written across it and was submitted for feedback before people were asked to commit to it.

If WoTC taught me anything, it taught me this isn't how drafts work.

/Snark

This is good news and I understand the need for precision. I was a reporter, and I know that the language of a contract or law can be vital for its understanding and implementation.

One thing that we should remember is that there is feedback on the draft. Obviously, feedback will shape the license.

Huh. This can't be a draft, it has the words "Draft Only Feedback Requested" written across it and was submitted for feedback before people were asked to commit to it.

If WoTC taught me anything, it taught me this isn't how drafts work.

/Snark

Perhaps WotC has people who believe that the word draft refers to requiring someone to serve under your terms, much like someone drafted by the military. /snark.

Part of the challenge is license terms do in fact have to have a certain level and use of legal terms and such in order to be legally enforceable when it come to intellectual property laws and there is a lot of legal world issues arose throughout international laws that have to meet standards in the EU, the U.S. and many other countries. IP licensing like most licensing agreements are suppose to be written for lawyers as LEGAL DOCUMENTS. Supplementing a lay man's level commentary can supplement the license itself but they are suppose to be written by lawyers, used in courts for legal actions or defense from legal actions whenever there is legal disputes.

Licensing agreements are legal documents and the principle users of the documents are the lawyers whose job it is to provide legal advice. However, a commentary about the intent and explanation of the terms should be produced which in essence is the role of AxE but a line by line commentary may be appropriate. License agreements is itself a contract "law" between parties in the contractual relationship which in this case means anyone entering and agreeing to the terms. The commentary would not be the legal binding document but a support aid to help understand the terms.

When I prepare contracts where I might get a bit 'legalese', I may incorporate commentary that are not in themselves legally binding but to aid in understanding the terms and even the intent. They can play a role in court disputes to understand the intent so it can be useful or not useful to either party of a legal dispute but it's there to help communicate intent that might not always be possible to be clear in the legal parlance of the agreement. Commentary explanations are useful to non-lawyers to process the intent and meaning of terms of an agreement.

Numerous countries are notorious for an affinity of long comprehensively expressed, often very verbose legal documents such as contracts, license agreements, etc. If it isn't precisely and explicitly spelled out, it isn't in the agreement. Short cuts like "etc." might not be accepted or enforced. These short cuts might be acceptable in U.S. but not in some countries. When OGL was written, they were probably not so up on international law issues but were familiar with U.S. but the experience then gained in the 20+ years may have expanded their understanding of the complex matters of laws and courts of the many nations throughout the world.

the license has to hold up in the courts throughout the world.

Good to have some free initial ORC drafts out there for all of us to peruse, Paizo. :)

Yo, this is cool and all, but I'm more interested in how far we can take these themed acronyms!

...

Next, they'll need a Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logist--wait, no.

You might wanna call an exterminator, just to prepare for a potential mouse invasion, just sayin lol.

I do like how you don't have to dedicate a page or two to reference the ORC like the OGL you have to. It is like a little box you have to have to indicate that it uses the ORC.

I do like how you don't have to dedicate a page or two to reference the ORC like the OGL you have to. It is like a little box you have to have to indicate that it uses the ORC.

It will allow more room for gaming content.