Won't do them a damn bit of good.  The cat's out of the bag now, there's already a free D&D, and evne if no one bothers with the extra effort to port the new rules into the old license, there's still probably going to be continued development on 3.x simply because of the whole free thing.

Open source was designed with that express intention in mind, I can't believe WotC is so myopic as to not realize that.

Furthermore, if the new SRD is only, as one poster on the Wizard boards points out, an index to what is open material as opposed to the open material itself, it's only a matter of time before someone compiles said open material, adds whats missing, and thus winds up with a PHB replacement of their own for all the world to see.

Quote from: RPGPunditVery interesting. I suspect that the basic effect of this will not be more sales, but far more piracy being generated.

RPGPundit

I think you're dead on about this. I had players who didn't feel comfortable putting down money for all three corebooks (or even the PHB) but would happily buy additional products...because they knew they could use them with just the SRD.

And with people who pirate habitually, products that were often referenced at the table usually ended up purchased eventually anyway. The ease of use and comfort of a book isn't easily replaced by a .pdf, and anything that saw heavy use would invariably end up on the table in a hard, legally bought format.

QuoteThe ease of use and comfort of a book isn't easily replaced by a .pdf

It is however, easily replaced by something as well designed and organized as d20srd.org.  

Which is why unless there's an equivalent for 4e, then independent of all other issues I may have with the game, it will be the clinching point for me sticking with 3.5.

While d20srd.org is certainly amazingly useful and easy to navigate, and I've used it every time I've run D&D in the past year, it still doesn't replace the books themselves.

Given that someone will be able to do what you've said upthread and that we'll probably have a d20srdesque site for 4e before too long. I'm not too worried about the changes to the SRD in and of themselves because of of this, but rather the wrongheaded attitude it's a symptom of.

Quote from: J ArcaneOpen source was designed with that express intention in mind, I can't believe WotC is so myopic as to not realize that.

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As I recall, the SRD came from WotC when that's all they were. Now they are a subsidiary of Hasbro, a much larger, and we can assume more moribund company.  Attempting to regain control, and financial income, from the SRD/OGL is undoubtedly what some Hasbro Beancounter thinks is 'Very Important' and all subsequent posts on the topic are undoubtedly then written, or at least planned, by Hasbro's legal department for maximum value to Hasbro.

WotC, and more specifically, the designers of 4e, have about as much control over this as my stinky sock.

Quote from: RPGPunditVery interesting. I suspect that the basic effect of this will not be more sales, but far more piracy being generated.

RPGPundit

Yup, this looks likely, and has been happening with non-OGC 3e products already. My most frequent duty as the moderator of RPG.HU's A/D&D forums is to delete requests for pirated material, and I assume the rest of the world is not that much better.