Ill do my best, haven't been into this stuff in years, but now that my boys are old enough to play magic, im following this.

So, the creators of D&D came up with the OGL (Open game license) at some.point to deal.with licensing type stuff (very broad definition cuz im foggy on the ins and outs of it, but I know some of it relates to fan made stuff too, somehow). The OGL allegedly is an unbreakable and unchangeable contract, written in a very binding way, etc. D&D has operated and released under OGL 1.0 with everyone happy for who knows how long...

Then wizards of the coast (makers of magic the gathering) buys TSR or whatever company owned D&D at the time, Hasbro acquires WotC, and corporate fuckery begins. Margins, profitability, whatever. And cue to the recent drama...

WotC sent out an email/letter telling of a new business shift (including a major push to an online subscription type model) and either news of a new license or a copy of a new license that they would publish and release material under going forward. The new license would seemingly rescind OGL or at least open the door to modification of the unbreakable contract, or call in to question its validity... and since none of the creators are owners anymore they probably figured it'd be easy... But you know nerds.

After the immediate backlash and most people seeming pretty ok with trying a new system and boycotting the fucking joke that D&D is to the people who own it, wizards walked back their email or whatever and tried to say it was just being put out there as a draft, and was sent out to whoever they sent it to for thoughts and ideas. Not sure anyone buys this.