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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fedifensor" data-source="post: 4967422" data-attributes="member: 7289">The PHB2 was legally available (for a time) as a PDF.  The pirates can't even use the argument that they were making a product available that WotC wasn't selling (electronic version of a book).  I'm not seeing any moral high ground for the defendants.My memory and thread-skimming skills may be a bit rusty, but the defendants were doing more than just downloading a copy for their own use...they were sharing the PDF with thousands of people.  The number of downloads listed are only the ones the plaintiffs were able to track, and is probably a lot higher.  Especially after counting those who downloaded the PDF, then turned around and shared it with other people.Piracy is bad.  However, some forms are worse than others, just as there's a difference between going 70 in a 55 MPH zone and robbing a bank.  From what I've heard so far, the defendants sound more like the bank robbers than the speeders.  But not all pirates engage in that level of wrongdoing.Pirating a book for your own use without paying for it - bad.Pirating a book and making it available to thousands of others to pirate - VERY bad.Now, there's a third form of piracy that's become more common since WotC changed their stance on PDFs.  Some people buy a copy of the physical book, then download a pirated PDF because there's no legal way to get a copy for use on their computer.  Why isn't WotC providing a legal option for these people?  This is lost sales, pure and simple.  (No, the Compendium is in no way, shape, or form a replacement for a PDF version).As for me, I own legal copies of seven different 4E PDFs (all purchased before the change in policy) and I own the hardcopy versions of all but one of them (Martial Power, because I don't make many martial characters).  As more books come out, I'm starting to wonder if it's time to figure out the settings on my scanner and make my own electronic copies of the books I've bought in the post-PDF environment.  I believe that's covered under Fair Use, as long as I don't distribute them.  It's annoying that I have the cash to spend on a WotC PDF, and I know it would be easy for WotC to offer it for sale, but they simply won't make the electronic version available.</blockquote>

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