All I've seen is second- or third-hand muttering. Until I see something official on the Wizards web site saying "The d20 License has been terminated", it's just speculation.
As for consequences, I know that d20srd.org would have to be rejiggered a bit.
I read somewhere - and I can't remember where, apologies - about the expiration of the d20 License. Does someone want to jump into this quagmire and explain what this does to third-arty publishers?
I barely grasp the difference between the d20 License and the OGL, and I do understand that Pathfinder is basically a rebranding (with a few tinkers along the way) of D&D 3.5... but what will be the fate of the small, nay, the tiny third-party publishers? Will intrepid folks still be able to publish their homebrewed 3.5 pdf's on EN World and such places? Or will that trickle dry up and fade away because of legal issues or even a shift of interest?
You can read up on the basics of the d20 License vs. OGL in Wikipedia:
Whether or not the d20 License hangs around has little real impact on most 3rd party material, as such uses the OGL rather than the d20STL. The material may dry up due to disinterest, but not likely due to legal issues.
My general understanding is that you (companies and private individuals) can use the OGL material forever. There will be nothing to stop that. The d20 license is specificly for the d20 logo on the products. This on the other hand is/will be terminated. Companies (and individuals) had to sign a license to use this logo and were held to certain standards if they put the logo on their product (I think the book of erotic something or other got in trouble over this). The big issue is that companies may have to pulp their print products with this logo, thus why many companies are having deals on their stock to get it out before they have to destroy it.
My general understanding is that you (companies and private individuals) can use the OGL material forever. There will be nothing to stop that. The d20 license is specificly for the d20 logo on the products. This on the other hand is/will be terminated. Companies (and individuals) had to sign a license to use this logo and were held to certain standards if they put the logo on their product (I think the book of erotic something or other got in trouble over this). The big issue is that companies may have to pulp their print products with this logo, thus why many companies are having deals on their stock to get it out before they have to destroy it.
Has anyone tried to come up with a reference or list as to which products have used OGL and will still be out there 01/01/09, or which had the d20 logo and are doomed?
I know the Clearance sales at the Paizo store is a good indicator, but I'd like to make sure I am not passing up the last opportunity to grab something I have been putting off but which will suddenly be put on the WotC Company Xmas Party Bonfire...
Chief Technical Officer
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I read somewhere - and I can't remember where, apologies - about the expiration of the d20 License. Does someone want to jump into this quagmire and explain what this does to third-arty publishers?
in April, D&D Brand Manager Scott Rouse said this in an interview on ICv2:
"...in June of 2008 [the d20] license will be terminated as we release the new game system license. We're going to give publishers a sell-off period where they'll have until the end of 2008 to move through any stock that they have in their warehouses. Once it's at distribution or in retail, the product can continue to sell through in its natural progression. We're not going to ask publishers to recall that product and destroy it. But any excess inventory that they may happen to have in their warehouses at the end of '08 would need to be destroyed. Any subsequent reprints they can still publish through the Open Gaming License, they just have to remove the d20 system trademark logo. That would include both PDF and physical product that continues to be sold after 2008."
...but, as far as I've been able to tell, there's never been an official announcement that this plan was actually carried out, in June 2008 or any other month. I'd expect notice to be posted on Wizards' d20/OGL license page, but I don't see anything like that there.
Nevertheless, numerous third parties have taken that statement as fact, and have begun the process of rebranding their d20 PDFs as OGL (or planned to stop selling their d20 PDFs entirely).
I barely grasp the difference between the d20 License and the OGL.
In short, the OGL is an non-revokable open license that allows publishers to use Open Content produced by other publishers in their products.
The d20 license is essentially a set of extra restrictions placed on OGL products; the main benefit to using it is that you get to use the d20 logo, and you can refer to a few of Wizards' trademarked terms (such as "Player's Handbook") in certain circumstances.
Initially, many people anticipated that the d20 logo would be viewed as a mark of distinction, and that producing a product without that mark would result in poorer sales. That may have even been true for a while. Eventually, though, some publishers decided that the additional restrictions imposed by the d20 license—and the fact that the d20 license is revokable—weren't worth the benefit granted by the logo. In fact, some thought they saw signs of a d20 backlash, where retailers who had ordered exuberantly during the peak of the d20 license now saw the d20 logo as a hindrance to sales, so they branded their product lines as OGL instead of d20. (All of Paizo's products that aren't official D&D are OGL.)
At any rate, for the most part, converting a d20 product to an OGL product is a fairly simple matter—publishers need only to remove the logo and a few bits of legal text. Also, if they referred to the Player's Handbook by full name, they need to change those references to just "PH," and make similar changes for references to other trademarks that were allowed under the d20 license but are disallowed under the OGL.