My name is "Defendant Radzikowski"

[Enerla]

But I don't think that's WOTC's endgame here, anyway. More likely there are strategic considerations involved on their part that probably play a bigger role than actually getting, and collecting on, a judgment. This could be a shot-across-the-bow move by WOTC, for example, with them firing on the first people they were able to determine had uploaded based on the watermarks. Whether that's viable or not is certainly questionable and open for debate, but WOTC certainly doesn't think they are going to collect millions from a few individuals in Poland or the Phillipines.

We both see that this move isn't about lost sales, if it would be, they would still sell OOP material as PDFs, they simply doesn't want to sell PDFs. And I can't even blame them for this.

Why?

They see even if 4th edition is considered a success and is sold to some new players, several old players don't like it, and if we see 3.5E crowd getting books (endless supply) and many will buy Pathfinder RPG that is bad. Also PDF sales on RPGNow / DTRPG and D&D Insider based content distribution can be direct competitors of each other.

If this will be aproblem in near future, then any high profile pdf getting pirated is a good excuse for it. If they just speak about piracy that is there for ages, that isn't strong enough. If they sue pirates they can point to... Now that is better.

 

[qstor]

I recommend you contact the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

IIRC they mostly deal with online free speech cases. The Constitution doesn't give you a free pass to pirate copyrighted material thats NOT Fair use. But I don't do intellectual property work.

Mike
let another lawyer. Lets start a new in the nongaming board for all the lawyers lol

 

[Michael Dean]

Mike
let another lawyer. Lets start a new in the nongaming board for all the lawyers lol

Ha ha! I only needed to dip my little toe in the internet law pool once to know I should stay in the shallow end. It's like the wild wild west in that area right now and probably will be for some time, especially with copyright and intellectual property. The law is not a very surgically precise tool in a field where the technology is outdated in months rather than years; it simply can't keep up.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

I advise everyone in this thread to read Franz Kafka's The Trial before making any further comments.

 

[Twowolves]

I advise everyone in this thread to read Franz Kafka's The Trial before making any further comments.

Why? Did this guy shoot someone once, then pause before shooting him 5 more times? Or did he just not cry at his mothers funeral?

 

[DracoSuave]

Are we on the same forums?

There's been countless people on this and the other threads trying to beat people with the morals stick. Meanwhile, I'm scratching my head and trying to remember if the same thing happened when cd burners came out. Surely those heralded the end of the music industry...?

Or VHS tapes. Good god man, anyone can take your tape and recopy it onto another! Why even bother having video rental stores - or hell, why bother having videos at all?!

There is a very big difference between copying something you own so you can enjoy it in the manner you desire, and copying something to distribute to other people so they don't have to legally own it.

It's like the difference between owning a gun so you can go to firing practices and hunt deer, and owning a gun so you can shoot people in the head who call you names. It's not the 'owning the gun' that's the issue at stake, it's what you do with it.

Copying isn't the issue, it's distribution that is. And let's not kid ourselves, you don't 'lend out' files. You can lend out console games, because they have a physical media that is only in one place at a time. When you copy a file from point A to point B, you're no longer 'lending,' especially considering there's little likelihood you'll be getting that copy back.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Copying isn't the issue, it's distribution that is. And let's not kid ourselves, you don't 'lend out' files. You can lend out console games, because they have a physical media that is only in one place at a time. When you copy a file from point A to point B, you're no longer 'lending,' especially considering there's little likelihood you'll be getting that copy back.

I'm led to believe that in the U.S., if a friend of yours lends you a CD, and you make a copy of that CD, you're in violation of the law. The CD is copyrighted, and by duplicating it you're violating that copyright.

Now, that's not the case where I live. We pay a levy on all our blank media that covers exactly that sort of use. The money goes to the recording industry, and we retain the right to make mix tapes for our friends.

So the question of whether you can "lend out" data is really a question of which country you happen to reside within. If it is legal to pass around media to close friends and family where this guy lives, then it's legal. If he did that, and one of his friends then stuck the file on the internet, then his friend is in violation of the law, and not this guy.

We do not know whether it is legal to distribute media in the way he describes. That means we do not know that it is illegal. We'll have to wait for an expert in Polish copyright law to come on and inform us. So there's no sense pontificating about how there's a difference between lending a book and lending an e-book if you don't know what the pertaining laws are.

 

[Choronzon]

You admitted to copying a pdf for a few friends. That's all you've done, and stick to that story. Still illegal, but it's not going to be a big deal. If WOTC wants to try and prove that you yourself distributed the files to thousands of other people, let the burden of proof be on them.

 

[DracoSuave]

If that country you live in is Canada, then you have the legal right to make copies for your own use. The levy covers that. You don't then have the right to distribute to non-owners. The levy does not cover that. You can acquire and copy media you own, you can't distribute to people who don't.

 

[Storm Raven]

Why? Did this guy shoot someone once, then pause before shooting him 5 more times? Or did he just not cry at his mothers funeral?

No, that's The Stranger by Camus.