Arcane Power: How long before the pirated copy appears

[Mistwell]

I don't think they do believe that. Mr Leeds stated that there are not even plans to work on distribution of PDFs or some alternative at this point.

I am struggling to figure out where on earth you got this impression.

They have said three times by my count that they are actively working on finding an alternative means of distributing their books electronically that would be more secure.

He also said it will not be PDFs.

So how did you get that they are not working on some alternative at this point?

 

[Aberzanzorax]

Sorry bout that Mistwell, you're mostly right here (and I'm mostly wrong).

I was going from memory, which was more or less that "they were thinking about eventually looking into maybe providing materials in digital form." I think my memory has been somewhat "retrained" by what I've read on various forums and blogs.

What he actually said was:
We understand that our actions will not eliminate piracy all together, but we don’t want to make it easy, either. In order to better support and grow our hobby industry, we need a strong retail base. We understand that our fans have a use for PDFs, and we are actively exploring other options for digital distribution. In the mean time, we needed to protect the hobby industry.

When I originally read this, I interpreted this as "yeah right, that's corporate speak for: now that we've taken away the PDFs we'll eventually get around to figuring out a solution...or not...but we'll be 'actively exploring.'"

In essence, you are absolutely right that my interpretation was skewed. It was deeply colored by my mistrust of them.

HOWEVER, note that they carefully didn't state here (or anywhere else that I'm aware of) that they have specific plans to actually release the info in digital content. They have plans to "actively explore options" but not any plans/assurances/etc. that they'll be releasing it, and certainly, given that they haven't even commited to doing it, they haven't committed to any kind of time frame.

So, when I think on it more, you're 100% right. I said what I meant wrong. What I should have said was "well they've promised to look into it, but I haven't heard any actual statement that they'll actually DO it."

To me, it's like when a parent says "I'll think about it." It's really no more answer to the question than "I'm buying time" as opposed to a "yes" or "no".

(Though...and I'm not being snarky here, as I could genuinely have missed it...do you have any instances of them saying that they would do it or commiting to it in some way?)

 

[WalterKovacs]

Just like Theft is factored into a place like Home Depot, Piracy needs to simply seen as a cost of doing business....

True. Total elimination of piracy is a pipe dream, as much as 'totally error free' or 'no down time', and other ideas. It's always important for a business to accept a certain level of negatives will slip in, and instead look to ways to both minimize it, and mitigate against what is left over.

This does not translate to doing nothing to deter piracy. Companies that factor theft into the accounting still do things to stop thieves, catch thieves and deter thieves.

The WOTC official pdfs made things easy for pirates, so eliminating the one thing that contributes most obviously to piracy that they can control seems like a simple step.

A rational reaction to pirating isn't to make it easier for your product to be pirated. They could just put the pdfs for free effectively making piracy a moot point. Or they can stop producing the pdfs for the pirates. Selling the pdfs is equivalent to the first part, and just asking for fans to "do the right thing" and pay for something they can get for free.

DDI isn't 1 to 1 equivalent to a pdf, but it covers a lot of the same areas in terms of fufilling needs. Thus, it does compete with pdfs, both the sold ones and the pirated ones, even if some prefer one to the other, or would like the benefit of having both.

 

[I'm A Banana]

A rational reaction to pirating isn't to make it easier for your product to be pirated. They could just put the pdfs for free effectively making piracy a moot point. Or they can stop producing the pdfs for the pirates. Selling the pdfs is equivalent to the first part, and just asking for fans to "do the right thing" and pay for something they can get for free.

It gums up my brainworks when someone thinks that a PDF of a book is the same thing as the book itself.

In the book world especially, having a copy of Arcane Power and downloading images of pages of Arcane Power are very distinct, separate, and discrete experiences. About the only thing they have in common is the content. While not an insignificant part of the thing, the content is surely not the whole of the thing.

People who want the Arcane Power book still need to go out and buy it. People who want the Arcane Power PDF can only pirate it. People who want both have a few work-arounds they can do, or they can do both. The content alone isn't the entire thing of a book (which is part of why Kindle, despite their attempts, will never be the next iPod -- books are a far different and less easily portable medium than music, and it is hard to improve on the cost/benefit format of the paperback).

 

[Dice4Hire]

It gums up my brainworks when someone thinks that a PDF of a book is the same thing as the book itself.

I really have to agree with this. I find pdfs useful, but I would never choose buying a pdf over a physical book, even if the pdf was 50% or more cheaper.

Not to be snarky, but books are indeed real things. Pdfs are simply not. They are electronic impulses that can be interfered with in a large number of ways. Yes, I know books can burn or such, but there are a lot of other ways to lose electronic data, from computer crashes, to hard drive corruption, or simply running out of money to pay the DDI subscription. I have my books here, and the odds of continuing to have them are very high. Having the rights to view content on a website is a fleeting thing. Very fleeting.

Take the WOTC pdf debacle. A lot of people lost their right to download the 5th, 4th, etc copies of their pdfs suddenly and irrevocably (at least so far) It could easily happen again.

 

[Kask]

They are electronic impulses that can be interfered with in a large number of ways. Yes, I know books can burn or such, but there are a lot of other ways to lose electronic data, from computer crashes, to hard drive corruption,

Which is absolutely no problem for the computer literate gamers. I can always print out a copy of a PDF. If a book is ruined, you're SOL.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Which is absolutely no problem for the computer literate gamers. I can always print out a copy of a PDF. If a book is ruined, you're SOL.

Lol, then your pdf burns too. Once you print it out it kinda becomes a physical copy, don't you think? And I can scan in my book too, if I want to. Your counter argument does not change a thing I said.

 

[tmatk]

...They are electronic impulses that can be interfered with in a large number of ways. Yes, I know books can burn or such, but there are a lot of other ways to lose electronic data, from computer crashes, to hard drive corruption, or simply running out of money to pay the DDI subscription. I have my books here, and the odds of continuing to have them are very high. Having the rights to view content on a website is a fleeting thing. Very fleeting.

...

It's easy enough to backup data, everyone should be doing it regularly. A pdf will probably be small enough that you could simply email it to yourself.

Now anything to do with DDi, yes that's another story. I won't be purchasing any books that can only be read with some kind of online drm reader, assuming that is the plan.

 

[Kask]

Lol, then your pdf burns too. Once you print it out it kinda becomes a physical copy, don't you think? And I can scan in my book too, if I want to. Your counter argument does not change a thing I said.

So, if your book burns you can print another? What ARE you talking about?

 

[Dice4Hire]

So, if your book burns you can print another? What ARE you talking about?

I think it is time for me to ... edit this post