WotC puts a stop to online sales of PDFs

naturaltwenty · Apr 7, 2009

Paizo Message

Dear Greg,

Wizards of the Coast has notified us that we may no longer sell or distribute their PDF products. Accordingly, after April 6 at 11:59 PM Pacific time, Wizards of the Coast PDFs will no longer be available for purchase on paizo.com; after noon on April 7, you will no longer be able to download Wizards of the Coast PDFs that you have already purchased, so please make sure you have downloaded all purchased PDFs by that time.

We thank you for your patronage of paizo.com. Please check out our other downloads at paizo.com/store/downloads.

Sincerely yours,
The Paizo Customer Service Team

FireLance · Apr 7, 2009

This is is what WotC should do:

1. Retrain their secret gaming police into an elite ninja force. As everyone knows, ninjas and pirates are natural enemies.

2. Unleash them onto the world with instructions to seek out and destroy all pirates instead of stopping people from house-ruling their 4e games or playing previous editions.

As a side note, Piratecat may want to change his screen name to Ninjacat just to be safe.

RefinedBean · Apr 7, 2009

It's like they have one person over there who makes sound, reasoned decisions concerning their marketing and business strategy, and then do the opposite of what he/she says.

Next up: White Wolf decides to copyright darkness.

Dimitri Mazieres · Apr 7, 2009

And, once again, it's at times like these when we should all say out loud with utmost sincerity: "Thank you, Ryan Dancey, for the OGL!"

Erik Mona · Apr 7, 2009

I just wanted to drop by with a friendly note to collectors reminding everyone that many classic TSR PDFs are STILL AVAILABLE for legal purchase at Paizo.com and will be until Midnight tonight, Pacific Time (about 4 more hours).

After that they will be gone forever, so if you're looking for a legal way to fill out your collection of classic TSR PDFs, there's no time like the present...

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC

PS: I strongly suggest grabbing a copy of the 1983 WORLD OF GREYHAWK boxed set as well as the 1990s follow-up FROM THE ASHES. Both are excellent PDFs, and who knows when you will next be able to pick them up legally and affordably?

PPS: Our servers are SLAMMED at the moment, so you may want to practice a few zen koans and cultivate patience as you wait for your order to be processed.

Asmor · Apr 7, 2009

Piratecat said:
What I find most annoying about this is that the honest people are being punished, and it's not going to slow down the dishonest people one bit.

As someone who works in the video game industry (and, thus, is likely well aware of the state of DRM), I'd expect that you're already well-acquainted with that feeling.

End of the day, the pirates will get whatever they want, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Period. Any attempt to inconvenience the pirates is strictly an inconvenience to your customers.

naturaltwenty · Apr 7, 2009

I respectfully beg to differ. If WotC signed the same contract that I signed (which maybe they did or maybe they didn't - WotC is definitely the one to blame)

I find it hard to believe that both OBS (RPGNow/DriveThru) and Paizo both had their contracts to end at the same time.

7. TERMINATION BY PUBLISHER. Publisher shall have the right to terminate this Agreement and the rights granted to OBS if OBS does not make timely payment of royalties, or if OBS violates any of its obligations under the terms of this contract. Termination shall be caused in any of the above cases or by reason of other breach or default by OBS, by Publisher giving thirty (30) days written notice of such breach to OBS. If such breach is not cured within thirty (30) days following receipt of such notice, this Agreement and all of OBS's rights hereunder shall cease and terminate and be of no further force or effect.

8. OBS'S WARRANTIES AND INDEMNIFICATION. OBS represents and warrants that it has the right to enter into this Agreement and that it has taken all appropriate steps to obtain such rights pursuant to its by-laws and articles of incorporation. OBS further represents and warrants that it will comply with all governmental laws, rules and regulations pertaining to it in connection with the creation, manufacture, marketing, distribution and sale of the Licensed Products, and all other transactions contemplated by this Agreement. At Publisher's request, OBS will use industry leading technology to
encrypt Products from unlawful copying, but cannot and does not represent or warrant that the third party software OBS utilizes cannot be decrypted

.

Mistwell said:
I do not understand some of the outrage expressed in this thread regarding the "retroactive" canceling of your agreement with RPGnow and various other sites.

Guys, if you had an agreement with a company to continually supply those PDFs, or allow multiple downloads, or save your files in case of a crash, or whatever, THAT COMPANY WAS NOT WOTC.

WOTC didn't retroactively change anything. Your agreement was never with WOTC. The company that breached your agreement is the company you had the agreement with, not WOTC. WOTC was just one of their suppliers. If you are pissed about retroactive cut offs of your agreement, your anger should be directed at the company you had the agreement with. They agreed to something with you (perpetual downloads) that they didn't have the ability to fulfill on, because apparently they never bought a guarantee of perpetual product supply from their supplier, or even a long-term notice clause in their contract of cancellation. The fault for that is with the PDF distribution companies like RPGNow, not WOTC. It's their entire business to supply PDFs, and it's them who are to blame if they failed the obtain necessary vendor agreements to do their job.

FATDRAGONGAMES · Apr 7, 2009

OK, can someone please explain to me how pulling all PDFs of previous editions helps WOTC 4E sales?

I'd love to own a piece of Paizo right about now...

Piratecat · Apr 7, 2009

Erik Mona said:
PPS: Our servers are SLAMMED at the moment, so you may want to practice a few zen koans and cultivate patience as you wait for your order to be processed.

Erik, I just waited five minutes even to pull up a product page. Is there any recourse for someone who buys a pdf and who simply isn't able to download it before the deadline?

Wraith Form · Apr 7, 2009

Mistwell said:
Guys, if you had an agreement with a company to continually supply those PDFs, or allow multiple downloads, or save your files in case of a crash, or whatever, THAT COMPANY WAS NOT WOTC.

...blah blah blah...

It's their entire business to supply PDFs, and it's them who are to blame if they failed the obtain necessary vendor agreements to do their job.

You, sir, really need to read these posts a bit more thoroughly. A quick scan around here will show you that this most certainly was a decision by WotC.

Thus the hatred. Again. Still.

WotC puts a stop to online sales of PDFs

naturaltwenty

Explorer

FireLance

Legend

RefinedBean

First Post

Dimitri Mazieres

Explorer

Erik Mona

Adventurer

Asmor

First Post

naturaltwenty

Explorer

FATDRAGONGAMES

First Post

Piratecat

Sesquipedalian

Wraith Form

Explorer

Similar Threads