Monster Manual 2: How long before the pirated copy appears?

[CapnZapp]

Like the very useful Arcane Power thread. Discuss sightings and rumors (no links please!).

How long do you believe it will take from this month's official release of MM2 until it hits the Internet, complete with bookmarks and OCR?

 

[Hellzon]

How long do you believe it will take from this month's official release of MM2 until it hits the Internet, complete with bookmarks and OCR?

The problem is, when do we start counting? It's out in Japan, after all. Not being pirated yet means it's already beaten the MM1.

 

[CapnZapp]

Count any way you like.

For Arcane Power it seemed rather easy to arrive consensus ("about a week"). I see no reason why this should change for MM2; SpringsBoundlessThorn had an early copy of AP too...

 

[Dice4Hire]

Well, I would say about a week or ten days. From official release date. I see no real reason for the time to be vastly different from Arcane Power, though I see more interest in the MMII.

I'm actually surprised that Arcane Power took ten days, with the anger over the non-pdf decision still fresh. I would have thought someone would have done it ASAP to show WOTC a thing ... or even two.

 

[Derren]

I'm actually surprised that Arcane Power took ten days, with the anger over the non-pdf decision still fresh. I would have thought someone would have done it ASAP to show WOTC a thing ... or even two.

That just shows that the D&D players are a pretty loyal bunch who don't engage is illegal activities that much.
The people who pirate PDFs are not D&D players but semi professional pirates who do this things to brag about it in the scene, not because they are interested in what they pirate.

 

[frankthedm]

That just shows that the D&D players are a pretty loyal bunch who don't engage is illegal activities that much.
The people who pirate PDFs are not D&D players but semi professional pirates who do this things to brag about it in the scene, not because they are interested in what they pirate.

Pirates are lazy. Even though many have the tech to OCR a pirated book, making it much smaller in file size and thus easier to share, few ever bother, leaving most the books in the 100mb range.

 

[Derren]

Pirates are lazy. Even though many have the tech to OCR a pirated book, making it much smaller in file size and thus easier to share, few ever bother, leaving most the books in the 100mb range.

No, pirates are not lazy. Its just that D&D books are very low on their list of priorities. And wasn't Arcane Power OCRed?

 

[lutecius]

The people who pirate PDFs are not D&D players but semi professional pirates who do this things to brag about it in the scene, not because they are interested in what they pirate.

I don't know. They buy the books don't they?
Also, rpgs aren't mainstream movies, long awaited albums or heavily protected softwares. I don't think scanning a book after its release date will make anyone shine outside of gaming circles.

 

[lutecius]

Pirates are lazy. Even though many have the tech to OCR a pirated book, making it much smaller in file size and thus easier to share, few ever bother, leaving most the books in the 100mb range.

No, pirates are not lazy. Its just that D&D books are very low on their list of priorities. And wasn't Arcane Power OCRed?

Yes it was.

Even with ocr, you can't reduce the size of a pdf too much without losing picture quality. Before wotc started selling pdfs, scanned copies were heavy but some had better bookmarks, links and pictures than the official ones.
That's another reason why I think they're made by fans.

 

[baphomet68]

Faster this time I think

The new PDF policy was spung too close to release for people to team up on the project - joe bob and ted go in on a copy, and ron scans and bookmarks it and sends it around; once the core group has copies, it goes to the DL sits. I think people were spoiled by WOTC staff leaking the PDFs, making real, external piracy unneccessary. (Or maybe it was the printers sometimes, but it was an inside job)
This is a release that has more pull than AP, so I voted 2 - 3 days to post. I think it will be scanned and available on private networks within 24 hours, and migrate to public torrent sites at 48-72 hours.
I have noticed that the April character builder patch has been taken down from some sites, while AP has been left up. So it may be that while MMII gets up quick, it may not STAY up. Anyone that believes in piracy should snatch it up ASAP; it may be a short lived torrent.