Definition
"Open gaming" refers to the practice of publishing content (rules, sourcebooks, etc.) under a free content licence (either copyleft or copyfree) or an open content license, which grants permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some or all of the content.
Ryan Dancey, the man who coined the term open gaming, used the term ‘open’ strictly and with reference to the open source movement. He described the Dominion RPG’s original licence as ‘pseudo-open’ and said games like Fuzion and FUDGE that (at the time) did not allow commercial reuse could come under the open gaming mantle if they adopted liberal terms like the Open Game License.
The Open Gaming Foundation, which Ryan Dancey founded, maintained a definition of an ‘Open Game license’ while it was active, with two criteria:
“1. The license must allow game rules and materials that use game rules to be freely copied, modified and distributed. “2. The license must ensure that material distributed using the license cannot have those permissions restricted in the future.”
The Foundation explicitly stated that the first condition excludes licences that ban commercial use. The second requirement is intended to ensure that the rights granted by the licence are inalienable.
Read more about this topic: Open Gaming
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