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Originally Posted by malraux A few comment, not that I expect this thread to last much longer.
In terms of going after end users, the war on drugs, copyright violations, etc, show that targeting the end users doesn't work.
Next, copyright violation is just that, copyright violation. Its not theft of service, shoplifting, etc. Heck, the primary court to handle it is civil, not criminal.
Finally, in this case, as opposed to cable theft, its likely that WotC's customers are the ones downloading. Or at least a very large fraction. I haven't heard too many people say that they've canceled their preorders. And the news seemed to be coupled with the books shooting up at buy.com. So its pretty likely that the downloaders are actually the customers, in the sense that they'll exchange money for products with WotC, both in the past and future. |
Sorry, the war on drugs is a bad example, because there's no way to obtain the items in question legally. If drugs could be legally obtained, going after those who obtained them illegally would cut down on illegal distribution.
As far as copyright violation, no company has actually tried to press the case
because they're afraid of the repercussions. The cable industry spent
years being afraid to prosecute those who stole signal. We punished the distributors, but it didn't stop. By contrast, companies that have gone after the end-user have seen success. Not at putting those people in jail, mind you, but at
turning them into paying customers, or at least preventing them from stealing our signal.
Copyright violation ends up in "civil court" because the owner has to assert their "ownership rights" for a crime to have occurred. (By the way, cable theft cases are usually settled in "civil court" as well). "Fair use" is all about what you can do without prompting the owner to take that step.
This issue is still in the process of being settled. Companies need to force the issue, or the very notion of intellectual property might get tossed out the window.
And on the issue of the downloaders being "customers," I just disagree. There are plenty of people bragging about how they'll never pay for the hardcopies, how it's "cheaper to print them at Kinko's," how they played
3e with just the free online
SRD, and so forth...
People engaging in those activities are NOT, by definition, customers.
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