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Old D&D books as print-on-demand is a great idea that will never happen
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<blockquote data-quote="Empirate" data-source="post: 5933554" data-attributes="member: 78958"><p>With D&D going through its fifth round of redoing the whole game, republishing the core books in altered form, and reshaping the whole community, I'd expect something like the abandonware idea to crop up at some point.</p><p></p><p>In the video game industry, it's an accepted fact that you <em>might </em>just make some money of the older titles you're currently holding the rights to - but it's just too much hassle to still market them. In step fan-based communities of old video games and found places like <a href="http://www.abandonia.com/en/game/all" target="_blank">Abandonia</a>. At places like that, you can download over a thousand old titles (complete with original music, box scans etc.) for free, get your hands on software that's needed to ensure to-day compatibility, and find forums to support you if you have trouble running that half-remembered childhood dream. The software companies holding the rights are specifically asked for their permission, and many of them do give it.</p><p></p><p>Abandonware sites run on trust: the downloadable products must be un-protected, or the whole idea would break down under an onslaught of lawsuits. To the software companies, abandonware sites can offer the benefit of keeping up customer interest in old titles to be picked up again a decade or two later (like Syndicate, for example). In other cases, where nobody really intends to do anything with the old trademark or content, abandonware sites at least don't damage any corporation's profits, since they'd not be interested in marketing their old titles anyway.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Might something similar be possible with D&D content? Might Hasbro/WotC allow fan-based downloading offers of old modules, for example, if said offers were strictly free and strictly limited to one module at a time (so no infringement on the D&D trademark were included)? Abandonware is a bit of a legal gray area, but so long as there's a gentlemen's agreement, and that agreement is kept up on both sides, there need be no trouble.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Empirate, post: 5933554, member: 78958"] With D&D going through its fifth round of redoing the whole game, republishing the core books in altered form, and reshaping the whole community, I'd expect something like the abandonware idea to crop up at some point. In the video game industry, it's an accepted fact that you [I]might [/I]just make some money of the older titles you're currently holding the rights to - but it's just too much hassle to still market them. In step fan-based communities of old video games and found places like [URL="http://www.abandonia.com/en/game/all"]Abandonia[/URL]. At places like that, you can download over a thousand old titles (complete with original music, box scans etc.) for free, get your hands on software that's needed to ensure to-day compatibility, and find forums to support you if you have trouble running that half-remembered childhood dream. The software companies holding the rights are specifically asked for their permission, and many of them do give it. Abandonware sites run on trust: the downloadable products must be un-protected, or the whole idea would break down under an onslaught of lawsuits. To the software companies, abandonware sites can offer the benefit of keeping up customer interest in old titles to be picked up again a decade or two later (like Syndicate, for example). In other cases, where nobody really intends to do anything with the old trademark or content, abandonware sites at least don't damage any corporation's profits, since they'd not be interested in marketing their old titles anyway. Might something similar be possible with D&D content? Might Hasbro/WotC allow fan-based downloading offers of old modules, for example, if said offers were strictly free and strictly limited to one module at a time (so no infringement on the D&D trademark were included)? Abandonware is a bit of a legal gray area, but so long as there's a gentlemen's agreement, and that agreement is kept up on both sides, there need be no trouble. [/QUOTE]
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