The Open Gaming License
I stumbled upon the following text on WOTC's website here:

Q: Why create Open Games?

A: The tabletop RPG business lost 60% to 70% of its unit sales from the period from 1993 to 1997. After a detailed study of the market data available, business managers at Wizards of the Coast decided that the primary reason for this decline was the dissatisfaction consumers had about the products game publishers made available for sale.

One way to help publishers make products that will be more interesting to consumers is to allow them to use standardized systems that have large networks of players. Designing a product targeted at a large network of players gives that product a better chance of being commercially successful than designing a product targeted at a small, or a new network of players.

Due to the history of copyright litigation, and the relatively modest financial resources of most game companies, an informal agreement regarding the use of shared game rules, or a license requiring a monetary payment to a third party would not have been sufficient to generate sustained interest in using such systems. Open Games provide both a royalty free license (meaning they impose no financial burden on the publishers) and a formal, explicit agreement describing how to use copyrighted material owned by others without triggering lawsuits or threats of litigation.

Q: Any other reasons?

A: Yes. In addition to the potential improvement in the business of game publishing, Open Games will be subjected to a large, distributed effort to improve the games themselves. Because Open Game licenses allow publishers to make any changes they deem necessary to the material they are using, a publisher who thinks they have found a better way to write a game rule will be free to do so. And, if that new way is perceived as better than the existing alternatives, other publishers will be able to take that new rule and use it as well. In this way, the overall design of an Open Game should improve over time, and be the benefit of far more development and testing than any one game publisher, no matter how large and successful, could hope to apply by themselves.


It's interesting to note that bearing the d20 license has some restrictions, but one CAN publish their own set of character creation rules and whatnot if you don't stick the d20 license. Some creations sport the OGL logo. Interestingly the game system Action! uses the OGL, but doesn't use d20 at all. It just uses the license... protecting the "open" rules but protecting all the copyrights and trademarks of the intellectual property in the setting... and some rules...
When Viruses Attack!
From this link, I found out that one of the mysterious e-mail I received was NOT spam, but a virus. Fortunately, I deleted it instead of opening it... I noticed the strange file extension on the attachment, you see...

The mass-mailing MyDoom virus has become the fastest spreading program to date and the damage could continue for months or years.

The virus, also known as Novarg and Mimail.R, spread quickly across the Internet on Monday, traveling as an e-mail attachment and infecting PCs whose users opened the malicious file...

The virus has programmed infected PCs to send data to the SCO Group's Web server between Feb. 1 and Feb. 12. The SCO Group has incurred the wrath of the Linux community for its claims that important pieces of the open-source operating system are covered by SCO's Unix copyrights. IBM, Novell and other Linux backers strongly dispute the claims...

The virulent program has flooded the Internet with e-mail messages bearing the program, doubling the time it takes most major Web sites to deliver a page. About one in every 12 messages being sent through the Internet contains the virus, said e-mail service provider MessageLabs. The previously most prevalent mass-mailing virus, called Sobig.F, only accounted for one out of every 17 e-mail messages...

The message sports one of several different random subject lines, such as "Mail Delivery System," "Test" or "Mail Transaction Failed." The body of the e-mail contains an executable file and a statement such as: "The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary attachment." and "The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding and has been sent as a binary attachment."


Ain't technology grand?
HEY!
What kind of Final Fantasy Character would I be? by TheBlueParadox
Your Name/Handle
Your Hair StyleHairspray Loaded Spikey White
Your Clothing StyleSwimsuit "No one complains!"
Your Weapon of ChoiceDaggers
Your MissionTo Save the Universe.
Your Role in the FantasyReluctant Hero:"Whatever..."
Created with quill18's MemeGen 2.0!
BAH!
What kind of Final Fantasy Character would I be? by TheBlueParadox
Your Name/Handle
Your Hair StyleShort Conservative Brown
Your Clothing StyleBlack Leather/Lots of Belts
Your Weapon of ChoiceMachina
Your MissionMy Target? SIN.
Your Role in the FantasyKing/Queen
Created with quill18's MemeGen 2.0!