Paizo's license changes pt2

In my first post, I went into a lot of details about the license changes, the possible reasons behind them, the implications for different types of creators, and what it meant for this project in particular.

As we'd hoped, Paizo have walked back some of their changes.

https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6w469?Updates-on-the-Community-Use-Policy-and-Fan

This won't be a super long post like before, because I already said most of it.

Here's the disclaimer again: I'm not a lawyer. I'm not your lawyer. None of this is legal advice.

What have Paizo announced?

• Paizo have reinstated the Community Use Policy. They've made some minor changes to the CUP:

  • Getting rid of the registry of CUP projects

  • Slight wording change to the legal boilerplate CUP projects must include

• They haven't removed the new Fan Content Policy.

• They haven't reinstated the ability to put OGL content on Pathfinder Infinite or Starfinder Infinite.

On talks

Paizo did reach out to me to talk about what my project needs, including the possibility of a commercial license. However, before we could agree on a meeting time, they made the announcement above.

So as it stands, I still haven't talked to Paizo directly.

I don't know what discussions happened with other creators or whether that informed their decision.

What this actually means

I made sure to save a copy of the old CUP before it got swapped out. You sadly can't view it on Paizo's site any more.

The big difference between the two is the the CUP can be combined with the OGL or ORC, which the FCP explicitly couldn't. That meant, without the CUP, every project needed to decide whether it was a rules project or a lore project. Now it's reinstated, the boundary is gone: a rules project can access some lore, or a lore project can access the rules.

(of the two, Dyslexic Character Sheets is absolutely a rules project)

As of now, there's a strange overlap between the CUP and the FCP. They grant almost the same permissions for almost the same requirements; but a project needs to choose which one is right for them.

The lack of new OGL content on Infinite (already-published items can stay there) means that the embargo on new PF1 or SF1 content is still in place. However, with the CUP enabled, it is now possible to publish PF1 or Starfinder content elsewhere, just not on Infinite.

How good is this, really?

Honestly, it's good enough, but only just.

The CUP has some strict term to it. Your project must be free. You're allowed to accept donations, ie Patreon, but it says "You can’t lock your content behind a paywall of any sort." I'm pushing against this by enabling quality-of-life features for patrons, even though the "content" part is all free.

This limitation means that while the CUP enables entirely amateur projects, it doesn't enable any sort of business -- not even minor part-time ones. As soon as you start to cross that threshold, you need to either move to the Compatibility License, or talk to Paizo about a commercial license.

While the CUP is generous, the Compatibility License is not. It does not provide access to any of the lore, not even proper names. So any project that crosses that line will need to work out how to strip that material out. And as discussed before, that's an error-fraught process.

You can see an example of this in Pathbuilder. It works just fine, I'm not trying to knock it; but it has zero Pathfinder imagery, and various of the options had to be renamed. Except they didn't get it right. I've seen things in Pathbuilder that were not legally correct.

What would be better

It's in Paizo's interests to have a healthy third-party market.

As it stands, a project has a lot of freedom if it's completely amateur, whatever Paizo agrees to if it's got a commercial license, but almost nothing in between. This roadblock between amateur and professional will stand in the way of new projects getting any traction.

Something notable about the CUP and FCP is that they're policies, not licenses. They can be revoked at any time, as we've seen. There's nothing legally binding. Anybody wanting to make a business will likely need to borrow money (because that's how capitalism works), and no bank will lend you anything if your business plan is built on hopes and wishes. That means a creator who wants to turn their project into a product needs an actual license. The only one they have is the Compatibility License, which grants... almost nothing.

If only the ORC License's definition of Licensed Material covered names, even if only the context of the rules they're referencing, we wouldn't have this problem.

The simples solution to this would be to add a few key permissions to the Compatibility License. It doesn't need to be anywhere near as generous as the CUP, it simply needs to cover sufficient name and lore material that somebody can make a product.

Behind the scenes

I don't have any special access to Paizo's thinking, so this section will have to be speculation.

Much of what I said before stands. Paizo's first motivation is to remove

The agreement with Wolves of Freeport (aka OneBookShelf, aka Roll20, aka DriveThruRPG) is the most likely reason for removing the OGL from Infinite. It wasn't possible before, but with the Remaster complete (as of Player Core 2) and the Starfinder 2 playtest out, this is the earliest possible time for them to shut down what Wolves of Freeport regard as a leak in their boat. I expect Paizo had little choice here, and that's why they won't be reversing that change.

With the purchase of Demiplane, alongside Roll20 and DriveThruRPG, Wolves of Freeport are becoming an RPG powerhouse, and I'm not sure I like it. A lot of what they have is community-built, but the company are clearly making a lot of money off it, and throwing their weight around.

Paizo's thinking regarding community projects is still a concern. The timing and way the announcement was done, and their comments since then, suggest that they don't understand their own third party market at all. They don't know how many of their players use these tools, or even understand what these tools are.

I really hope this interlude has woken them up to it.

What this means for Dyslexic Character Sheets

With the main issue resolved, the project is safe, and I can get back to work.

I was already quite a long way behind on the Remaster and the new website, and for the month this has been happening I haven't progressed either at all. So I really need to try and catch up. It'll be a few months before I have much to report.

In the longer term, I'm wondering if I should apply to Paizo for a commercial license after all. I'm certainly not one of the big players, but I'm bumping up against the glass ceiling of amateur projects.