WotC puts a stop to online sales of PDFs

[xechnao]

I think it may be interesting to consider the point you're making in the context that this is the first edition of D&D to be released and targeted - at least to some degree - to the first generation to grow up with broadband internet.

I saw a documentary not so long ago about the topic of electronic downloading, in particular the topic of downloading music. There were quite a few people on the show in the 15-25 year range who admitted to downloading music illegaly and thought nothing of it; a common perspective was that if the material is available to download for free then why should anyone pay for it?

A launch of a new edition with electronic product support to such an audience could understandly see a spike in piracy of the product to a degree that would alarm WotC and perhaps goad them to take this action - not to mention the prelaunch leak of the 4E core, which certainly could not have helped matters. Still, I wish they would have put a little more thought into their response as I doubt it will generate much for them besides customer resentment.

This is a valid logical argument: trying to educate public regarding the new generation. But then why this lightning like reaction? Why having to stop the PDFs? It seems less about educating and more about denying and this is what it seems that has alienated customer base and industry (see white wolf promotion for example).

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

After a little research I can attest that the majority of 4E pirated PDF products currently available are not scans but official copies. The difference being a rather diminished file size (close to a third of scanned books) as well as a far better index, easier to search file and the fact you can copy paste text and images easier than you could from even the best quality of scan. Make of that what you will.

Reminds me of the biggest problem of any DRM measurement that exists:
It's more a hassle to the customer than to someone using a pirated version. Sure, the pirates first have to crack your DRM, but in the end that will always be possible, since the protected material will eventually "leak out" unprotected to the users eyes, and shortly before that, it will be in unprotected digital form. (Until we have brainware encryption/decryption.)

Without legally available PDFs, people have to use the scanning route, and that doesn't get you the same results as the original PDFs.

I suppose the closest one could come to this would be creating watermarks embedded in the illustrations in a PDF. The only way to remove them would be to remove them from the image, which would likely affect its quality (due to the way image compression works) - but would this be enough to stop it? I doubt it. Ugly illustrations with rules text is still better than no rules text at all.

 

[CharlesRyan]

using piracy and the legitimate court case as the scapegoat.

You know, I work from a marketing and PR budget. Although I've never done so, I suppose I could imagine someday having to use some of that budget to give me a scapegoat for something.

But could I imagine spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars? Legal cases are expensive. Cross-border legal cases involving two foreign countries? Not a very good RoI for the PR budget.

No, this legal case is important to WotC. Really important. Probably a lot more important than the sales lost by pulling all PDFs, and apparently even more important than all the ill-will that's been generated. WotC didn't pour all these resources into a scapegoat.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

No, this legal case is important to WotC. Really important. Probably a lot more important than the sales lost by pulling all PDFs, and apparently even more important than all the ill-will that's been generated.

I'm still in search of the mechanic by which pulling their PDFs helps in a legal entanglement, Charles. Can you shed some light on that, even if purely hypothetically?

 

[xechnao]

Hmm, is it possible that because of the streamlined and balanced crunchy gamist nature of 4e, content has gained more gamist value than "fantasy environment immersion and inspiration" value and so text books could eventually seem less and less appealing than digital pdfs regarding product utility? It seems the game could very well have been made on a card format instead of a book format (except adventures-scenarios) - multiclassing and dualclassing seem the most serious reasons for a game player to be bying whole books.

So they could be afraid of some kind of fan base pdf trend developing in expense of buying the text books -and since pdfs may have less material value than text books, they could also have less long lasting appeal (because their value is mostly connected to their gamist utility) which may mean fewer customers in the long run. Add to this trend the fact that pdfs are highly subjecticable to piracy since they have less product value quality to oppose it by being mostly valued by their gamist utility and you may have a receipt for "disaster" regarding the long standing profitability of 4e.

This may be a possibility regarding what they are thinking regarding pdfs.

 

[xechnao]

No, this legal case is important to WotC. Really important. Probably a lot more important than the sales lost by pulling all PDFs, and apparently even more important than all the ill-will that's been generated. WotC didn't pour all these resources into a scapegoat.

Important as what? As the financial result of the lawsuit? As a campaign against piracy that will put it to an end so they could sell more pdfs in the future?

 

[Bagpuss]

Here's what I think: It's because something has changed.

Could the something that has changed be something internal to WotC, such as

A) They plan move publication of digital materials in house.
B) Management (who have a different view of how big an issue piracy is)

as opposed to your suggest that the level of piracy has dramatically increased?

 

[joethelawyer]

Here's my speculation.

What changed was the resurgance of people picking up older versions of the game. This competed directly with the current version. That coupled with piracy which has always been around spurred a strategy of pulling ALL PDFs and using piracy and the legitimate court case as the scapegoat. All older product gets pulled along with new product, thus ending the self competition and forcing price increases in the after market sales of older edition material.

There will never be an end to piracy, or even a slowing of it. The RIAA proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt, but piracy makes an oh so handy scapegoat to allow the pulling of the older edition material.

IF my speculation is correct, this is what will happen:

1) 4E Electronic Media will be made available via the DDI in the not too distant future, and will be announced as the next "feature" in DDI.

2) Promises will be made that older material will appear in DDI at some unspecified future date. This alleviates the nerd rage and is the "I'll never beat you again" phase of the spousal abuse syndrome.

3) We will never see the older material legally available in electronic media again.

Yeah, I know I'm saying WotC is lying to us.

But I would say, "look at the pattern of the past two years starting with the promise that 4E was not forthcoming."

I agree completely, and with the additional thought that we won't get a good honest answer from WOTC on the pulling the pdf's because "It has to do with a pending legal action and it is our policy not to comment on anything related to a pending legal action." Blah Blah Blah...

 

[Azgulor]

I think it may be interesting to consider the point you're making in the context that this is the first edition of D&D to be released and targeted - at least to some degree - to the first generation to grow up with broadband internet.

I saw a documentary not so long ago about the topic of electronic downloading, in particular the topic of downloading music. There were quite a few people on the show in the 15-25 year range who admitted to downloading music illegaly and thought nothing of it; a common perspective was that if the material is available to download for free then why should anyone pay for it?

A launch of a new edition with electronic product support to such an audience could understandly see a spike in piracy of the product to a degree that would alarm WotC and perhaps goad them to take this action - not to mention the prelaunch leak of the 4E core, which certainly could not have helped matters. Still, I wish they would have put a little more thought into their response as I doubt it will generate much for them besides customer resentment.

Wait, you mean the younger audience, the one with supposedly more disposable income that is the proverbial gold mine customer base that is preferred over the loyal 30+ customer base, <gasp> might have a perspective that supports piracy?!?! I'm STUNNED!!

Kidding aside, that's excellent information and a parallel I hadn't considered.

I just find the irony LMAO mind-boggling.

 

[Klaus]

I'm still in search of the mechanic by which pulling their PDFs helps in a legal entanglement, Charles. Can you shed some light on that, even if purely hypothetically?

I'm not Charles, but I know of cases where a company lost their copyrights after failing to protect those copyrights publicly.

For instance, Adobe has to publicly defend the name "Photoshop", and tries to keep any media from using "photoshopping" as a verb for "image manipulation in a computer". If they fail to do so, they might lose their claim to the name.