OGL 1.1 live chat with a lawyer at Roll for Crit.

[DEFCON 1]

It's not really a possibility considering third parties are already against it and nobody are enthusiastic about something that, at the very least, is confirmed to affect royalties in a manner that is wholely negative to third parties and gives them zero value comapred to previous agreements.

It's not now, no. But when the 1.1 was being proposed back at WotC HQ, this was still one of the possibilities on the table that could have resulted since they hadn't sent it out to people yet. Which is possibly why they they did it... ask for the moon and who knows, maybe you'll get it? Then if there's push back, at that point you negotiate down to a more equitable level.

Was it likely that 3. would have been accepted? Not at all. But you'd never know until you asked.

 

[macd21]

I don't see how it makes any sense as a negotiating tactic. Consider two alternatives:

1. WotC shares the draft of 1.1 and says, "We're deauthorizing 1.0a and you will like it." Third parties say, "This sucks" and leak the document, leading to public backlash against WotC. So WotC says, "Fine, we're still doing 1.1 but we won't deauthorize 1.0a." And third parties say, "Uh, fine."

2. WotC shares the draft of 1.1 and says, "Here's the new license but you can still use 1.0a if you want." Third parties say, "Uh, fine."

Which of those two do you consider the shrewder negotiating tactic?

I don’t think 2 would have been the likely outcome. I think it would have been:

WotC shares the draft of 1.1 and says, "Here's the new license but you can still use 1.0a if you want." Third parties say, “This sucks” and leak the document, leading to public backlash against WotC.