Piracy

[GMforPowergamers]

I think we're all forgetting one thing piracy of the 3 core books actually did for 4e, that is make more people buy into the game. Those leaked pdfs made a lot of skeptics who probably weren't going to buy the books at all look through them and make a good, informed decision.

you may be right...but this poll shows otherwise..

at this time: Pirated, didn't like, didn't buy 114 39.18% is 1st place


on the other hand Never pirated any of the books 99 34.02% that is right only 1/3 of those polled say they never pirated...I guess Enworlds high standards are not as high as we all thought...I see lots of posters talk about how bad pirateing is, but again ony 1/3 of us say we never did it...

 

[grickherder]

you may be right...but this poll shows otherwise..

at this time: Pirated, didn't like, didn't buy 114 39.18% is 1st place

You need to remember that the poll is set up so you can choose multiple answers. I, for example, chose all 4 of the first 4 answers. The leaked PDFs got me back into D&D (and I've made a lot of purchases as a result), but other things I've looked at the PDF and decided not to get it. THe poll options were not mutually exclusive. Important to remember that.

 

[maddman75]

Now I'm wondering whats to stop WoTC from getting a subpenoia to find out who voted that they downloaded the stuff illegally and bringing them up on charges.

For starters, violating copyright isn't a crime.

 

[Shadowsong666]

you may be right...but this poll shows otherwise..

at this time: Pirated, didn't like, didn't buy 114 39.18% is 1st place


on the other hand Never pirated any of the books 99 34.02% that is right only 1/3 of those polled say they never pirated...I guess Enworlds high standards are not as high as we all thought...I see lots of posters talk about how bad pirateing is, but again ony 1/3 of us say we never did it...

Sorry, but the world inside the box demands a double moral standard.

Whats wrong with the poll?
39% said that the product they looked at was crap in their eyes. For them downloading the stuff and reading it was like having a look into the book in a store and deciding that its not for them. If a friend asks me if he can look into my books to find out if he should buy them he simply gets my books and takes all the time he needs (well, as long as i don't need them). I don't even want to know what crap is on my hard drive that i don't even look at anymore. Server Manuals, CSS Guides..... frag them.

34% say they didn't pirate anything. Great!
17% pirated the stuff and bought the books! Good thing - the pdfs worked as a great preview - getting 17% more people into buying the books.
22% bought the books and pirated the pdfs. what the frag (yeah, i love BSG ) - they downloaded a pdf version of a thing they own. Booho.
8% downloaded it, didn't buy it and live a life as evil, stealing pirates among our community!

So out of the 100 - 8% are real evil pirates. Don't go and make it 1/3 - because thats not the case here. Intentions matter sometimes. Maybe not for some people here - but for my social conscience it does.

 

[Halivar]

For starters, violating copyright isn't a crime.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. The "No Electronic Theft" (NET) Act of 1997 made the copying of copyrighted information over the internet into a felony punishable by $250K in fines and 5 years in prison per item infringed. The DMCA of 1998 increased the monetary penalty to $500K for first time offenders, and $1M + 10 years per incident for repeat offenders.

EDIT: It is my sincere hope that I'm not flirting with the "no politics" rule when I mention that you can, in fact, go to jail longer for your PDF collection (if you have 2 or more) than your average rapist (117 months). Be smart. Don't download. If you have a problem with this, call your nearest local friendly lawmaker.

 

[beeflv30]

I made like a pirate, but also bought the books as soon as they were released a few days after the 4e core set leaked. Soon after I deleted the copies since I hate pdf format compared to the real books. I do not really fear being persecuted for doing so, the torrent laws here in Canada are pretty slack, in fact the priority is to focus on organized crime and copyright theft that affects the health and safety of consumers instead of the cash flow of large corporations. I personally do not shun those who choose to torrent or those who choose not to, it is all up to the individual and I think some corporations (They shall remain nameless) deserve what they get, but that is my own opinion.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

...friendly lawmaker.

What?

 

[jgbrowning]

I had to use a cassette deck with my TI-99.

I wish.

joe b.

 

[Knightfall]

I prefer actual books to PDFs, anyways.

Bye
Thanee

Me too.

I'm still considering whether or not I'm going to buy the 4e Manual of the Planes.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

GMforPowerGamers is proof that Lawful Neutral does indeed exist ;p

Laws != morals. There are such a thing as bad laws. There are such a thing as stupid laws. As I mentioned in another thread, the law against pot is stupid, and the illegalization of prostitution is bad. One is dumb, the other is inherently harmful.

Is smoking pot morally bad because it's illegal? Is drinking alcohol somehow morally better because it's legal for no logical or scientific reason?

Bad and stupid laws cannot be changed so long as you think of them as moral guidelines. Laws are a social contract, not a divine mandate, unless you're living in a theocracy, which I don't think any of us - aside from some Australians - are. And a social contract can be changed. Look at the Constitution - the ability to make amendments to it was put into place because of the general idea of "This stuff isn't ironclad. Situations change. Laws have to change with them."

The fight regarding piracy is, as I mentioned earlier, a complicated one. As someone else brought up, copyright law is a relatively new thing. And no matter how many laws you put down, piracy will never be stopped. Ever. Most of the time, attempts to stop piracy only encourage it, something the video game industry has yet to fully grasp as they lose more and more profits with stupid, stupid ideas of trying to punish people. Does that make it morally right? I don't know. Nobody does. Judges interpret the law because laws can be interpreted in multiple ways. They also give sentences instead of having one unified Code of Hammurabi gouging out everyone's eyes because circumstances change. You can't just put your foot down and say "This is the way it is, forever, and it should always be that way."

It's complicated.