CC: Is "For Use With 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons" allowed

[Reynard]

I'm curious and wondering if any of the lawyery folks can give me an answer:

If I publish a 5E adventure and cite the srd released under CC-BY, can I put "For Use With 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons" on the cover?

 

[MoonSong]

I'm curious and wondering if any of the lawyery folks can give me an answer:

If I publish a 5E adventure and cite the srd released under CC-BY, can I put "For Use With 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons" on the cover?

Yes. Nominative use to indicate compatibility is a limitation on Trademark. As long as trade dress isn't confusing, that is.

 

[Morrus]

Obviously I am not a lawyer, or your lawyer, and can only do what you can do -- read the license. However, doing so:

CC-BY, s3.a.3 -- "If requested by the Licensor, You must remove any of the information required by Section 3(a)(1)(A) to the extent reasonably practicable."

It is, in my view, reasonably practical to remove that attribution, so the license requires you to do so. WotC has requested as such with the phrase "Please do not include any other attribution regarding Wizards other than that provided above."

I have a guide on using CC here:

How to Use Creative Commons — Advanced 5E System Reference Document

a5esrd.com

Obviously, consult your own lawyer, but that is my reading of the license. Not your lawyer, etc.

 

[mellored]

You may, however, include a statement on your work that it is “compatible with fifth edition” or “5E compatible.”

That's the phrase WotC suggested you use. But yours is probably fine as well.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Page 1 of the SRD v5.1 CC-BY 4.0 is pretty clear.

The System Reference Document 5.1 is provided to you free of charge under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License (“CC-BY-4.0”). You are free to use this content in any manner permitted by
that license as long as you include the following attribution statement in your own work:

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of
the Coast LLC and available at Systems Reference Document | Dungeons & Dragons. The
SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Please do not include any other attribution regarding Wizards other than that provided above. You may, however,
include a statement on your work that it is “compatible with fifth edition” or “5E compatible.”

Section 5 of CC-BY-4.0 includes a Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability that limits our liability to you.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

While you might be within your rights (certainly some usages on the cover, with no logos, to establish compatibility would be acceptable), I don't know why you want to tread into a legal minefield just to do free advertising for a company that may well thank you with litigation. At this juncture everyone who would buy a third party anything knows what "5e compatible" means, and my prediction is that the meaning of that will only be better known in the coming clone age.

If you want to mention compatibility with "Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons, OneD&D, and other 5e-based games" in the description or something like that when listing it on a website, that's almost certainly fine. Once again, I am doubtful it really gets you anything with the probable customer base, but if you feel it's necessary you can probably safely go ahead. Maybe that even makes sense in smaller print somewhere on the cover. Certainly if there is an introduction I wouldn't be shy about acknowledging the D&D roots. Just avoid anything that might remotely have the color of you free-riding off their brand good will rather than matter of factly acknowledging the pedigree and compatibilities of your product.