OK, I'm sure many of you have seen the latest eruption of the piracy/IP permathread. One of the things I've noted the last few times is the lack of hard data for various positions, at least with regard to the RPG industry. I want to change that - better data should at least make for better arguments, even if it doesn't change any minds (lies, damn lies, and statistics - zealous members of both sides will see what they want to see anyway).
So, I'm laying down a challenge to the publishers - can you provide answers to the following questions? If you don't want to provide actual figures, percentages should be OK. I don't get accounting figures from my record label until December at the earliest, so can't provide data myself.
1) Has your content been reused by another publisher? Are they larger/better known than you? Did it materially affect your sales of the associated product?
2) Do you have any products that have moved from being a paid product to a free product? Has the change affected sales in any way? Bean Books (a fantasy but not an RPG print publisher) has published sales figures; their figures show a marked increase in the sales of a particular author whenever they release one of their works for free. Altas Games said they saw a major dropoff in sales of the Ars Magica core book when they provided the 4th edition as a free product; I don't know if there was any affect on the rest of the sales line.
3) Do you have any products that are available both for free and as a paid product? Cory Doctorow does so for all his novels and avers that it increases his sales. Magnatunes (the music publisher) claims they see significant revenue by pursuing this strategy, though I believe they have no control group of recordings for comparative purposes. O'Reilly and a number of other computer publishers do this for selected titles with no obvious ill effects.
4) Do you ask for donations in your free products? Do you get any? Bram Cohen (author of BitTorrent) has been living on donations for four or five years now.
5) Have you released an SRD? Has it affected your sales? I note that Wizards continues to add to their SRD collection, and find hard to believe they would pursue this strategy if it were a loss leader. But I have no data to support my conclusion. And I'm looking at you, Phil Reed.
6) Does your most frequently pirated product sell more or less than your least frequently pirated product? It's been stated by some that piracy is a tax on popularity (IIRC, that statement can be attributed to Tim O'Reilly). I can state that my CD is not pirated at all even though free audio streams are available at the store; I can only assume I am massively unpopular; contrast with Metallica's piracy rate.
7) Have you had to quash a product due to licensing issues? Was it a trademark or copyright issue? Was it, in your judgement, a work of creativity? Do you have any creative work that was done but will never see the light of day due to licensing issues?
8) Has public domain work helped you produce a product? Did it make a difference creatively? Did it make a difference in sales?
9) What about Creative Commons or similarly licensed content? By which I mean, works in which the publisher implicitly grants permission without you needing to consult them (excluding the Open Gaming License).
10) Has adopting/dropping DRM affected sales of a product? How about piracy rates of that same product?
So, I'm laying down a challenge to the publishers - can you provide answers to the following questions? If you don't want to provide actual figures, percentages should be OK. I don't get accounting figures from my record label until December at the earliest, so can't provide data myself.
1) Has your content been reused by another publisher? Are they larger/better known than you? Did it materially affect your sales of the associated product?
2) Do you have any products that have moved from being a paid product to a free product? Has the change affected sales in any way? Bean Books (a fantasy but not an RPG print publisher) has published sales figures; their figures show a marked increase in the sales of a particular author whenever they release one of their works for free. Altas Games said they saw a major dropoff in sales of the Ars Magica core book when they provided the 4th edition as a free product; I don't know if there was any affect on the rest of the sales line.
3) Do you have any products that are available both for free and as a paid product? Cory Doctorow does so for all his novels and avers that it increases his sales. Magnatunes (the music publisher) claims they see significant revenue by pursuing this strategy, though I believe they have no control group of recordings for comparative purposes. O'Reilly and a number of other computer publishers do this for selected titles with no obvious ill effects.
4) Do you ask for donations in your free products? Do you get any? Bram Cohen (author of BitTorrent) has been living on donations for four or five years now.
5) Have you released an SRD? Has it affected your sales? I note that Wizards continues to add to their SRD collection, and find hard to believe they would pursue this strategy if it were a loss leader. But I have no data to support my conclusion. And I'm looking at you, Phil Reed.
6) Does your most frequently pirated product sell more or less than your least frequently pirated product? It's been stated by some that piracy is a tax on popularity (IIRC, that statement can be attributed to Tim O'Reilly). I can state that my CD is not pirated at all even though free audio streams are available at the store; I can only assume I am massively unpopular; contrast with Metallica's piracy rate.
7) Have you had to quash a product due to licensing issues? Was it a trademark or copyright issue? Was it, in your judgement, a work of creativity? Do you have any creative work that was done but will never see the light of day due to licensing issues?
8) Has public domain work helped you produce a product? Did it make a difference creatively? Did it make a difference in sales?
9) What about Creative Commons or similarly licensed content? By which I mean, works in which the publisher implicitly grants permission without you needing to consult them (excluding the Open Gaming License).
10) Has adopting/dropping DRM affected sales of a product? How about piracy rates of that same product?
