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[Lizard]

Originally Posted by Alkiera

Similarly to the above, piracy can't be prevented; and I'd argue that the amount of money spent on lawyers and investigators to try to prevent it often outweighs the cost of the piracy. The vast majority of people who illegally download materials either never would have paid for it in the first place (Adobe Photoshop, anyone?), people who can't pay for it because it's no longer for sale(abandonware) or are using the download as a preview and end up buying a legit copy in the end. Neither can be counted as a 'lost sale'.

Ever hear of the broken window theory of law enforcement?

It states, in effect, that if you ignore trivial crimes, like broken windows, you set a social expectation that the law doesn't matter -- and thus increase the incidence of serious crimes. Communities which vigorously pursue and punish minor crimes -- skipping subway tolls, graffitti, etc -- have far fewer serious crimes, in part because there's just some people who will break the law and some who won't, and arresting them when they commit a small crime keeps them from committing larger ones, and in part because when you set a social expectation that you WILL be punished if you're caught keeps people from committing any crime.

Many places hosting stolen RPG materials are run without any secrecy at all -- you can trivially get the names and addresses of the people hosting them. They either don't have a clue that "sharing" files with their "friends" is wrong, or they don't give a damn. One phone call from the local cops would scare them into taking down their sites, and once news got around, so would most of the others.

The money would be better spent keeping employees and contractors happy so they don't leak your products ahead of time. Also, keeping an eye on business 'partners' who'd do the same.

There's always going to be one person who'll do it "just 'cause", if he knows he'll suffer no consequences.

And Mourn, nothing anyone says on ENWorld is going to solve society's problems. Respect for life, people and their property needs to be learned as a child; and many in our society aren't learning, because few are teaching it.

So why not teach it here?

People who come online and brag about having stolen/downloaded books don't know they've done anything wrong. When their peer community -- their fellow gamers -- tells them, flat out, "You done messed up big time," then, they're hearing something they've never heard before.

I've had no problem telling people who "offer" me CDs full of "free" gaming material that "I write those books. I get paid for it. If enough of them don't sell, companies stop making them and I lose work. I know people who feed their families from their writing. They aren't corporate fat-cats, they're people who have to choose between doing what they love so long as they can -- just barely -- survive on it, or leaving the industry for jobs that pay a lot better when they can't." This is something they've rarely been told. Most people view it as "uncool" to tell someone they're a crook when they were "just being friendly".

Sorry, offering me stolen goods isn't a sign of friendship. Especially when some of the stolen goods belonged to me to begin with. (Or at least have my name on the credits...)