The Open Gaming License (OGL) was the brain child of Ryan Dancey, the then D&D (DungeonsAndDragons) brand manager at Wizards of the Coast. He saw how successful the OpenSource software movement had become and the OGL is his attempt to apply the same principles to game publishing.

See http://www.wizards.com/D20/article.asp?x=dt20010417e

''Whew! I thought maybe it was an open'' game ''license, where hunters could shoot at anything they wanted. I was considering all those PointyHairedBoss''''''es from years ago...''