4ed torrents -How'd it happen?

[PatrickLawinger]

Or within the pdf file itself. I don't know a lot about the pdf structure, but I'd imagine adobe or the publishing companies would be working on some sort of tracking system.

I am pretty sure they could track it, the question is, where/when did the copies get stolen? Sure, it could have been a disgruntled employee at the printers, or maybe someone got hacked, or maybe someone walked away from their computer for a while and someone came by ... etc. Just knowing where the file came from doesn't automatically tell you who uploaded it.

I am sure that Scott and others at WotC are absolutely furious about this. I have had the pleasure of seeing discussions of downloading a book I wrote on message boards. Not a bad thing if that book was available for sale as a .pdf, but it wasn't (still isn't actually).

At the same time, mad as they must be, it has to be difficult to decide what to do about it. Do they spend time, effort and $ tracking down exactly who did it and taking them to court? Do they try to track down where the book "probably" got stolen and never use that company/person ever again? They have other alternatives as well, all of which require expending energy that they would otherwise spend marketing the game and trying to sell the physical books. The legal department will probably look into it a bit but my guess is that Scott and some of the others try not to let it distract them during the day and then quash their anger with a drink or two in the evening.

Patrick

 

[dagger]

First of all, not all pdf versions of leaked books are created equal. Some are just stupid scans off of a normal every day scanner. These are huge files that vary wildly in quality. I have seen a version of Book of Vile Darkness at over 150MB. Even with robust OCR software, these usually still are the suck.

The type of pdf that we saw on dooms day was a pretty high end version (copy/paste, text searchable...).

Another version just dropped today that is even better, includes bookmarks and everything, but that is done after the fact (by a pirate friendly pirate I guess). It also includes a form fillable character sheet.

To make the type of PDF that we saw this week, does NOT require a leaked copy. Its just hard to do and you have to know what you are doing. One thing that is pretty much required is access to the actual books.

That being said, I am pretty confident that the file was leaked, because normally the high end PDFs (or OEFs), come out AFTER the crappy versions.

Something WoTC should know, this is not the first time I have seen an OEF of a WoTC book out BEFORE the release date......

I think they need to take a hard look at the publisher side of things.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

It is important to note that even if you pre-purchased the books, if you bittorrented the file you are only adding to the proliferation of piracy by seeding as you leech.

I don't have any qualms with that, but I do want to call it for what it is.

 

[Mark]

I could think of plenty of ways to do viral marketing without punching myself in the groin at the same time.

Yup. Never mix business with pleasure.

 

[Cirex]

Get over the idea this was some marketing ploy, it was theft.

I'm curious why are you revealing this information to the public.

 

[Blackeagle]

They still could get a civil case going, theft of property and that sort of thing.

They could definitely sue for copyright infringement. I was just pointing out that something can't really be a trade secret when people already have legit copies in their hands.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

I'm curious why are you revealing this information to the public.

People continue to put forth the notion that we did this on purpose.

 

[FoolishFrost]

"Johnny, Johnny, Johnny...what are we going to do with you? Can't have you leaking stuff all over. Bad for business..."

(Two large gentleman emerge from the bar and walk menacingly forward. The other man stands, leaves the table, in order to give them full acess.)

"They've got to save their dailies for Joey, but they've got plenty of encounter powers just for you..."

(Fade Out)

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahah... <wheeze> ... <chorkle> ... <snort>

Okay. I'm entertained. Where do I send the check?

 

[Obryn]

I'm curious why are you revealing this information to the public.

Because if people keep insisting WotC did it themselves, it suddenly makes everything legit & above-board in their minds. "No, no! They WANTED me to get the rules 2 weeks early!"

It's a silly conspiracy theory, and if I were them it would bug me, too.

-O

 

[Goobermunch]

People continue to put forth the notion that we did this on purpose.

And if people think they did it on purpose, people will feel that downloading the torrent is okay, because it is "sanctioned" by WotC. And if even one person who would have bought the books without the torrent chooses not to because of it, WotC suffers from the loss of a sale.

All of which seems like a good reason to point out that the publication of the torrents was unauthorized, so as to increase the (already low) moral barrier to entry for some folks.

--G