Open Game License or Creative Commons?

[jeffmoore]

I am planning to eventually rework all of my previous projects to make them some kind of open content. Currently I am trying to figure out the difference between placing the creative commons / attribution mark on my works and pasting the WOC Open Game License into my docs. I'd love for someone to tell me what the pros and cons of each of these is. I would like to retain my "ownership" of my work while still allowing people to copy, change, create and share anything they want of those same works. Also, if I declare my work to be OGL is it enough to copy and paste the OGL verbatim or are there components that I should consider examining and changing to my individual needs?

Thanks for the help!

Jeff Moore

[Rob Lang]

CC is becoming more common and I think the CC website is really good for describing what can and can't be done. I'm going CC with Icar, which is something of a shock for me!

[Starglim]

[Sanglorian]

That's a great summary from Starglim!

Is receiving credit for your work important to you? The OGL forbids credit except in the Section 15 which is rarely read.

Do you want adaptations of your work to be open as well? CC Attribution won't do this; the OGL or CC Attribution-Share Alike will.

Do you want a clear differentiation between open content and closed content? The OGL makes this easy with the Open Content Declaration and the Product Identity declaration. It's probably still possible if using a CC licence (AGON makes the cover image open but not the rest) but it'd be more complicated.

Can you spare a page for a licence? If not, CC just requires a paragraph-long snippet.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

[Sanglorian]

Your talk that creators shouldn't be depending on royalties decades after their work reminded me of . You keep your copyright for 14 or 28 years, and then it lapses into the public domain - as the US Founding Fathers intended.

[Age of Fable]

Personally I'd use Creative Commons. This is because it's easy to see what rights you're giving away and what you're keeping.

I've read of people making mistakes with the OGL and doing things like saying that "this game is the property of Wizards of the Coast" or not specifying what was Product Identity.

[misterecho]

the OGL is really heavy on legal-ese, CC is much easier to understand.
IMHO

[Rob Lang]

[koipond]

Yup. That's why I'm going with a two tiered CC license for Geasa.

All rules text is BY-SA
All example text, story text and the second half of the book is BY-SA-NC