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Wizards of the Coast, who own Dungeons and Dragons, have been in the news lately because their OGL 1.1 was leaked. The OGL was an open source-like license, originally from 2000, which allowed people to create D&D-related works and which was supposed to not be revocable, as confirmed by its drafters. WOTC is trying to revoke it by using a clause referring to "authorized" versions of the license and claiming to have de-authorized the earlier license. The new replacement license requires giving 25% of your revenue to WOTC, makes you send a copy of your content to WOTC which they can then publish for free, and they can revoke it at any time making all your products instantly unsalable.
After backlash from fans, WOTC officially released a 1.2 license instead, which has similar problems, but worded a bit more subtly.
The culture war element comes from this clause:
I hope the problems with this are obvious to everyone here. I absolutely don't want a world where people with the wrong political beliefs can be barred from producing game materials. But every objection I've seen to this clause by fans has been a twenty Stalins objection: WOTC has produced discriminatory material in the past and can't be trusted to do this properly. There have been calls to have WOTC outsource this to an independent tribunal. Just, take it out because even people with unpopular opinions should be able to put them in games? No, nobody believes that.
(Links are trivial to google, but it's hard to find a site that has everything correct all at the same time, and is up to date as well, and also engages in trustworthy journalism in general. This EFF post at least covers part of the initial controversy, though you'll have to follow links to see what's in the license.)
Again as with Twitter, I think WOTC have the absolute right to decide who uses their IP via license and contract agreements, if they want to stop everyone left wing, right wing or whatever then that is up to them (and their bottom line). Note you can put whatever opinions you want in games or have them, you just can't do so with their license and IP and that should be their choice to control (or not).
I think that people with whatever opinions should be able to make games, but I also think WOTC has the right to decide who can do that for their licenses specifically.
And then people have an absolute right to not buy/use their products or go to a competitor if they don't like their stance.
But then I haven't liked a DnD product since 3.5 so it's no skin off my nose to avoid buying their stuff, as I haven't for years. Pathfinder 1E is a good substitute for 3.5 and Pathfinder 2E is excellent in my opinion and splits off further from DnD mechanics at least somewhat. Though not sure that helps you from a non-woke direction as I think Paizo are perceived as more woke than WOTC.
IP itself is a government creation. So the question is not "does WOTC have a right", the question is "are we happy with the government giving them this right". I'm not happy with it.
I suppose my question is why? Part of a companies brand and therefore value can be the moral values it upholds (or is seen to uphold at least). A trad right wing RPG company should be able to pick and choose who it licenses to and not license to communists or whatever. Thats a business decision. People who don't like it can suck it up and use it anyway. Or go elsewhere.
A company should be able to be openly political if it likes. If Elon owned Twitter wants to ban everyone to the left of Kevin Sorbo he should be allowed to. It's his platform now. We can then respond by not using it. It isn't necessary, it's not a requirement to live or take part in society. Even less so with WOTC.
I don't pick the companies I use due to their values but many people do and companies should be allowed to take advantage of those preferences if they like. If they think one of their license holders being outed as a rapist or a liberal or jaywalker is bad for PR then they should be allowed to write their license for the future to include severability. And then customers can either like that, not like it or not care and act accordingly. Forcing companies to be viewpoint neutral is a disservice to them and to the engine of capitalism. It's ok for them to be biased and have a political lean if they want. It's also ok for them not to be. More choice, more freedom, more dynamism.
Social media site for centrists only? Go for it. High heel shoes only for right wingers? Rock on. Rugby boots for anarcho-syndicalists? Kick away. You'll probably fail horribly but you should be allowed to try. If you want to try and spread your values and earn money that should be allowed. It gives people more opportunities for work where it is for something other than just a pay cheque, which is i think one of the most soul destroying things we do. Woke capitalism is the model of the future. Many people it turns out like to work for a company that (they believe) is also doing good.
Exceptions for utilities, phone, internet access and the like as they are requirements on the modern world. But it should be a light touch beyond that.
I'm not suggesting they be arrested for not wanting right-wingers to use D&D. I'm just pointing out that IP isn't naturally property; it's not a right which the government merely recognizes like the right to actual property or to your body. IP is a government-granted monopoly and the government shouldn't be granting monopolies that are against the interests of the populace in general.
They shouldn't be allowed to have a license for that at all. It's IP, it isn't something that they naturally own such that it can only be used by others if they license it out. It's not a car, or an apartment. It's a deal where we say "we pretend you own it and we'll shoot people who don't agree, as long as you use it for everyone's benefit".
I don't think the "use it for everyone's benefit" is part of the deal. It more like "so you can monetize it therefore incentivizing people to come up with new ideas in the future, which can also be monetized and thus taxed"
There is absolutely no requirement for everyone to benefit because that would mean giving your IP away. The restrictions specifically mean NOT everyone will benefit, thats the point. Only certain people will. I'm not benefitting from Brandon Sanderson owning his product, he is. Which makes sense as he spent time and effort making it up. I can enter into a transaction to enjoy his product by buying his books. But i would benefit more by getting them free. But he wouldn't.
There is a meta view that encouraging people to create by allowing them ownership so they can make money off it, then benefits society over all. But that doesn't mean every single person or group has to get that benefit for every single IP. Just that IP laws protect the trad right RPG maker as they do the communist left RPG maker. The key factor is that they then retain the right to decide what to do with their work. They can sell it on, destroy it, refuse to license it for any reason.
There are writers who refuse to license their works to be made into movies because they think the message will be destroyed or their vision perverted. But more people will benefit from their work when it is more widely spread so accepting your logic, they should not be able to refuse? Alan Moore must license his works so that more people can benefit? That would seem to be the end point of your argument.
If Alan Moore held 80% of the market, such that making a derivative of anyone else's work than Moore's was difficult merely because of the size of the market, it would be fair to not let him use copyright to keep people from making derivatives. Think of something like public accommodation laws, except that there's no issue of "the government telling me what to do with my property" because copyrights are not actually property.
I can't imagine how such a thing would even come up for Alan Moore. It would be impossible for one person to produce enough literature such that creating literature that didn't use it was orders of magnitude less practical than using it. Even Watchmen or Harry Potter aren't 80% of the literature market. D&D's position in the gaming market doesn't compare to anything else that's copyrighted except software, and I'd certainly object if Microsoft said "anyone can link to Windows libraries, except Trump supporters".
DnD makes up about 53% to 55% of the market as near as i can tell. So it isn't anywhere near a monoply though. And even if it were 80% there are plenty of alternatives, so it would quickly lose market share. As indeed seems to be happening right now.
There are feedback mechanisms to punish companies who overreach without government intervention. And if their consumer base like the overreach, then it was not overreach but a savvy business move.
I am more sympathetic to your Microsoft example. So its not that i think the base idea is without merit. Monopolies that lock people out of using most computers (vital for the modern world) seem something worth tackling.
But DnD is just a game. They don't have to be politically inclusive if they don't want to be. Even if Fox news had 80% share i still think they should be allowed to be as partisan as they want. After all that is part of how they would have got to 80% market share so hobbling their strategy doesn't seem warranted. Its ok for entertainment and "news" and so on to be partisan. People are partisan and in general companies should be able to appeal to that as much or as little as they want to.
And its not as though a conservative can't hold their nose and play DnD anyway. WOTC can't tell, the only thing they are targetting are people they license. Its more like Fox News saying they can fire a host who comes out as a communiat or gets into a scandal. Thats the default position I think.
Googling figures, if you add Pathfinder, Starfinder, and D&D 3.5 you get somewhat over 60%. Which is less than I expected, but big enough that keeping someone from using it is not like saying they can't use something by Alan Moore.
... if most of the market were occupied by Fox News and this automatically made you lose out on 60% of the jobs. And even that's a bad comparison because Fox News hiring someone means that Fox is spending money that they actually own, not things that we've created a fake ownership structure around.
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