WotC puts a stop to online sales of PDFs

[Bagpuss]

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.)

Which is why DRM has been dropped by the music industry. They still go after pirates but they now don't penalise the paying customers and have made efforts to make their music accessible in a legal and affordable form through other sources. For example I'm currently listening to the entire content of Bat for Lashes new album free online legally, it is tempting me to go out and buy the CD.

 

[Bagpuss]

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.

Photoshop is a trademark not copyright.

 

[webrunner]

B) Management (who have a different view of how big an issue piracy is)

So you're suggesting the new management.. likes piracy? Because this is 100% a completely pro-piracy move if taken to be related to piracy at all.

 

[Bagpuss]

So you're suggesting the new management.. likes piracy? Because this is 100% a completely pro-piracy move if taken to be related to piracy at all.

No, I'm suggesting they might be idiots not up to speed on the issues surrounding piracy, and still be living in the 1990's.

 

[Shadowsong666]

ok - so how long until they realize that with the character builder you do not need most of the books anyway? Everything based around characer creation is in the character builder - everything the majority needs and wants when buying a book or pdf... the only things missing are fluff stuff and campaign setting material. Every item, power, class feature, feats, race is in the builder. Why should a "player only" DnD gamer buy a book/pdf if he gets everything for just a small fee with the character builder?

But lets see what the next step is...
Create a new subscription model for the character builder so that you only get an update if you have bought it?
Wanna use arcane power stuff in the character builder? buy it.
Wanna use divine power stuff in the character builder? buy it.
Have bought the arcane power book and use the stuff inside your book in the character builder? well, buy it again.

I just feel robbed of easily going digital with my DnD stuff in the future. Back to the old way then - someone seen my scanner?
There is just no way that i will get back to hurling around 10 books for a session if can simply grab my netbook and go off gaming the whole night... sorry WotC. I don't want to live in the 20th century anymore.

 

[Fenes]

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.

You are wrong. That's a trademark, not copyright. You can refuse to print a book you have the copyright of for decades, and you'll not lose the copyright.

 

[scruffygrognard]

Additionally, that's a pretty sizable list of grievances - and I'm guessing this newest development wasn't in any way a camel's-back-breaking straw for you. Correct me if I'm wrong.
-O

True. I had been moving away from being what you would call a loyal customer back around the time that Dungeon and Dragon magazines were pulled.

Instead of buying EVERYTHING they put out, I started to buy only "necessary" books and became a lot my discerning about what I considered to be necessary.

Once 4th edition came around and I looked over the PHB, I got wise to their business model (release increasingly incomplete core materials, make support materials increasingly necessary, and, once the buyers are tapped out, make those materials obsolete by making them incompatible with the next iteration of the game) and happily left them behind.

I think, with 4th edition, WotC has mastered the art of bilking customer's for all they are worth. I hope that their decision to remove pdf support for earlier versions of the game bites them in the ass.

 

[Nikosandros]

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.

That's a trademark issue, not a copyright one. Besides, the question isn't why is WotC suing the copyright infringers, but how does removing all PDFs help their legal case.

 

[Xyxox]

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.

I don't deny the case is important.

I deny that the case is the reason they pulled the PDFs. It was a bonus feature of WotC having to move on the issue.

In other words, the plan was to pull the PDFs all along. Piracy was a separate issue, but pulling the PDFs was a benefit because now they had a ready made excuse to pull all PDFs.

 

[MerricB]

They pretty much are, actually. I know you meant "legal PDFs," but that's the thing: taking away the legal versions isn't going to affect the illegal versions. Except to make them more popular for less guilt and stigma.

I would expect that taking away the legal versions will affect the illegal versions: it makes them take more time to produce and the quality won't be as good as what we've had (scanned as opposed to being produced from the original printing files).

If Charles is right (hi Charles!) and Wizards are reacting to an upswing in direct piracy of the pdf files they produce, then it will make some difference. By no means will it eliminate piracy, but it will make it slightly harder to do and the end result is likely to be not as attractive to the "consumer".

I expect that the pdfs of the old products will come back, although I'd not be surprised to see them offered in a different way than before. PDFs of brand new products? Now, that is going to be a tricky business.

Cheers!