JVisgaitis
Explorer
Mercule said:
Understandable. Probably my fault for not using Windows rich client. I know better and didn't think anyone here would catch that. My bad... That's what happens when one posts at work in a hurry I suppose.
A Technical Look at D&D Insider Applications
Understandable. Probably my fault for not using Windows rich client. I know better and didn't think anyone here would catch that. My bad... That's what happens when one posts at work in a hurry I suppose.
I like it
For my vote, I'd much prefer a digitally signed PDF for cheap than anything with DRM. Knowing that my PDFs can be backed up and stored long after the DRM system expires (all DRM systems expire sometime - take a look at the videos people bought from google or the original music sold by Microsoft or the old Circuit City Divx movies that no longer work).
I'm happy with this solution.
For my vote, I'd much prefer a digitally signed PDF for cheap than anything with DRM. Knowing that my PDFs can be backed up and stored long after the DRM system expires (all DRM systems expire sometime - take a look at the videos people bought from google or the original music sold by Microsoft or the old Circuit City Divx movies that no longer work).
I'm happy with this solution.
Hussar
Legend
My prediction:
The books will come with some sort of scratch card inside the cover. The code will be tied to that specific book. You have to give credit card information to unlock your book (only way to pay) and that will give you a watermarked PDF that you can use to your heart's content.
For the person who steals, well, that's an awful lot of PITA to go through - get a credit card in a fake name, pay the 2 bucks, cancel the credit card so they can't go after you. Sure, someone will probably do it, but, who cares? The vast majority of people will simply pony up the buck or two and download the legal content.
Sounds like a pretty stellar idea to me.
The books will come with some sort of scratch card inside the cover. The code will be tied to that specific book. You have to give credit card information to unlock your book (only way to pay) and that will give you a watermarked PDF that you can use to your heart's content.
For the person who steals, well, that's an awful lot of PITA to go through - get a credit card in a fake name, pay the 2 bucks, cancel the credit card so they can't go after you. Sure, someone will probably do it, but, who cares? The vast majority of people will simply pony up the buck or two and download the legal content.
Sounds like a pretty stellar idea to me.
Zogmo
First Post
Yea, what about this?
I believe the secondary market will have to go without access to the ebooks if someone already used the unique code. My thought is that I buy the DMs guide, register the ebook, then sell my hard copy to a used book store and keep the ebook as my main source.
Whoever buys my hard copy isn't going to get the ebook because I legally own the ebook still and WotC won't be bothered with keeping track of who owns what after the initial purchase and registration.
WotC isn't going to start keeping track of who the latest owner of the hard copy is and who owns the ebook and then keep track of that for the life of the product as it changes from person to person to person. Too much trouble.
Mouseferatu said:
I believe the secondary market will have to go without access to the ebooks if someone already used the unique code. My thought is that I buy the DMs guide, register the ebook, then sell my hard copy to a used book store and keep the ebook as my main source.
Whoever buys my hard copy isn't going to get the ebook because I legally own the ebook still and WotC won't be bothered with keeping track of who owns what after the initial purchase and registration.
WotC isn't going to start keeping track of who the latest owner of the hard copy is and who owns the ebook and then keep track of that for the life of the product as it changes from person to person to person. Too much trouble.
Hussar
Legend
mxyzplk said:
If that were true, Itunes would be out of business already. ITunes has shown that people will pay what they consider to be a reasonable price for access to something they want.
Those that still pirate music continue to do so. But, there's certainly a decent amount of money to be made from honest people.
Plus, that bit torrented book you DL won't give you the bennies associated with the virtual tabletop and the chargen program. Depends on what you want I suppose.
A few of my take aways:
The getting a lower subscription for the DDI if you give up the magazines it interesting because it shows that there is no hard and fast point at which offering extra content becomes nickle and diming.
One factor in the Paizo free PDF vs WOTC couple bucks Dataset and Ebook is that Paizo has less of a piracy concern. Paizo has a much smaller audience so it is less worthwhile to pirate their product. It is like how Macs don't get viruses because relatively few people use Macs compared to PC and so the effort it takes to make a virus is better rewarded by designing it to attack Windows users. It isn't that Macs are better designed to stop viruses, remember, the first virus was written to affect Apples. Likewise, it isn't that Paizo has better motives, it is that they don't have to worry as much about Piracy.
Putting CDs in books doesn't seem like a good idea. First, adding something that bulkly can affect the shipping weight raising the cost for retailers. Second, I think CDs are on the way out and will be replaced by zip drives. A sticker covering a printed code should be the trick.
I don't think the pen and paper guy going into the Game Store to get codes is going to be much of a concern. First, the person stealing the code would have to put some sort of credit/identity information to access the book. Second, the person buying the book would physically have the book and a recipt which would be proof of ownership of the book and entitlement to the benefits of the code. So the thief would be stealing something that would get noticed and he would be giving contact information to the people that would want to catch him. I know there are dumb criminals, but that would be beyond dumb.
I'm not sure how the secondary market would be affected. One the one hand it would be nice if you could buy a used book and just pay the fee to get the dataset. But on the other hand, there isn't a big cost to WOTC in not set up a way to account for the secondary market. Setting up a system that is only concerned about the people first buying the books has to be cheaper than setting up a system that takes into account reselling. Plus it sets up an incentive to basically pass the book around which would cut into sales of the real world books.
Another aspect of the used book market problem is that when I sell a 3rd Edition Monster Manual I am giving up ownership of the entire product that I bought. In other words, I had a book, I sold the book, now I don't have the book. Buying the 4th Edition Monster Manual involves more than just buying the book. It also involves buying the right to active the E-book and dataset. If I sell the phsyical 4th Edition Monster Manual am I just selling the phsyical book or am I selling everything I got when I bought the 4th Edition Monster Manual in the first place? Unless there is an easy way to transfer the digital property at the same time as the physical book I'm inclined to just say that buying a used 4th edition book means you are just buying the physical 4th edition book, nothing else.
That said, I would like to see support for people that just want to buy the online product. My opinion on what the price should be would be no more than what you get for selling a book to your distributors (25% MSRP?).
The getting a lower subscription for the DDI if you give up the magazines it interesting because it shows that there is no hard and fast point at which offering extra content becomes nickle and diming.
One factor in the Paizo free PDF vs WOTC couple bucks Dataset and Ebook is that Paizo has less of a piracy concern. Paizo has a much smaller audience so it is less worthwhile to pirate their product. It is like how Macs don't get viruses because relatively few people use Macs compared to PC and so the effort it takes to make a virus is better rewarded by designing it to attack Windows users. It isn't that Macs are better designed to stop viruses, remember, the first virus was written to affect Apples. Likewise, it isn't that Paizo has better motives, it is that they don't have to worry as much about Piracy.
Putting CDs in books doesn't seem like a good idea. First, adding something that bulkly can affect the shipping weight raising the cost for retailers. Second, I think CDs are on the way out and will be replaced by zip drives. A sticker covering a printed code should be the trick.
I don't think the pen and paper guy going into the Game Store to get codes is going to be much of a concern. First, the person stealing the code would have to put some sort of credit/identity information to access the book. Second, the person buying the book would physically have the book and a recipt which would be proof of ownership of the book and entitlement to the benefits of the code. So the thief would be stealing something that would get noticed and he would be giving contact information to the people that would want to catch him. I know there are dumb criminals, but that would be beyond dumb.
I'm not sure how the secondary market would be affected. One the one hand it would be nice if you could buy a used book and just pay the fee to get the dataset. But on the other hand, there isn't a big cost to WOTC in not set up a way to account for the secondary market. Setting up a system that is only concerned about the people first buying the books has to be cheaper than setting up a system that takes into account reselling. Plus it sets up an incentive to basically pass the book around which would cut into sales of the real world books.
Another aspect of the used book market problem is that when I sell a 3rd Edition Monster Manual I am giving up ownership of the entire product that I bought. In other words, I had a book, I sold the book, now I don't have the book. Buying the 4th Edition Monster Manual involves more than just buying the book. It also involves buying the right to active the E-book and dataset. If I sell the phsyical 4th Edition Monster Manual am I just selling the phsyical book or am I selling everything I got when I bought the 4th Edition Monster Manual in the first place? Unless there is an easy way to transfer the digital property at the same time as the physical book I'm inclined to just say that buying a used 4th edition book means you are just buying the physical 4th edition book, nothing else.
That said, I would like to see support for people that just want to buy the online product. My opinion on what the price should be would be no more than what you get for selling a book to your distributors (25% MSRP?).
