Are we gamers an ungrateful lot?

[Mouseferatu]

Well obviously you didnt do all that work because you liked it. But if some company has hired/contracted you once they have bought your work Its upto them to pick a medium for sale not you. So Im not sure why you are conserned about what happens to your ideas after after youve been paid.

Except that you just basically said earlier in the thread that words and ideas have no value until/unless they're stuck in a book somewhere. You said "digital media" is worthless.

You obviously don't think the value of a book is in the paper, since nobody buys a book "filled with blank pages."

Yet you obviously don't think the value is in the content, since you claim that content is worthless unless it's in a book.

Which is it?

You said labor produces "physical results." My labor produces words. Either they have worth, or they don't. You don't think writers should go unpaid--you just said companies should buy my work. But for that to make sense, those words have to possess value.

Again, which is it?

(And to answer your question, of course I care what happens to my work after a company pays for it. How do you think authors advance their careers? They get better offers, from better companies, because people see and think well of their writing. If a book isn't printed, nobody sees the content. If a book is poorly marketed, it doesn't reach the full potential audience. If a book is poorly edited or poorly laid out, people won't read the written words. What happens to a book after the author turns in his word count is just as important to the author as it is to anyone else.)

 

[Chaos Disciple]

Is it safe then to assume that you believe all software should be free since programming and code are essentially ideas, have no phisical form, and require you to use your own computer.

Im saying if you make digital media you might as well make it free.

The reason for this is because a computer can duplicate and distribute your digital media instantly and infinitly for free this is a fact. I did not invent the computer or internet so dont blame me for this. If companies know a computer can do this (its pretty common knowledge) i dont see why they would complain when people do it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

If companies know a computer can do this (its pretty common knowledge) i dont see why they would complain when people doing it.

Are you joking?

That's like blaming Ford or Toyota for auto theft.

Just because the tools exist for people to do something immoral or illegal, that doesn't make it any less immoral or illegal.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Im saying if you make digital media you might as well make it free.

The reason for this is because a computer can duplicate and distribute your digital media instantly and infinitly for free this is a fact. I did not invent the computer or internet so dont blame me for this. If companies know a computer can do this (its pretty common knowledge) i dont see why they would complain when people doing it.

Well, it's pretty simple really: just because something can be done, doesn't mean it should be done. mmm'k?

edit --- oops, sorry for the timing there, Mouse.

 

[Chaos Disciple]

Are you joking?

That's like blaming Ford or Toyota for auto theft.

Just because the tools exist for people to do something immoral or illegal, that doesn't make it any less immoral or illegal.

Wow I bet nobody even goes over the speed limit in your world

But seriously people are going to do it and it cant be stoped thats a fact

And as I said before digital media is worthless anyway

 

[Mouseferatu]

Wow I bet nobody even goes over the speed limit in your world

Um... What?

But seriously people are going to do it and it cant be stoped thats a fact

I never claimed otherwise. That still doesn't make it right, and that still doesn't mean companies shouldn't complain about it or try to stop it.

And as I said before digital media is worthless anyway

Yes, you said that (except for the parts of your argument that totally contradicted it). You saying it doesn't make it true.

 

[Chaos Disciple]

Um... What?



I never claimed otherwise. That still doesn't make it right, and that still doesn't mean companies shouldn't complain about it or try to stop it.



Yes, you said that (except for the parts of your argument that totally contradicted it). You saying it doesn't make it true.

Ok its my opinion digital media is worthless and you can think every digital file is worth 5 bucks or whatever and ill buy one take my computer make 1001 copies of it in about 2 seconds and sell 1000 of them for 5000 bucks!!! isnt that cool

You just keep thinkin those files have value but i dont and thats my just opinion

 

[Mouseferatu]

Ok its my opinion digital media is worthless and you can think every digital file is worth 5 buck or whatever and ill buy one take my computer make 1001 copies of it in about 2 seconds and sell 1000 of them for 5000 bucks!!! isnt that cool

You just keep thinkin those files have value but i dont and thats my just opinion

So where are sites like RPGNow making their money, if they don't provide any product of value?

More to the point, what happens when you see a product on a topic you want, by an author you like, that's only available in PDF format?

 

[Chaos Disciple]

So where are sites like RPGNow making their money, if they don't provide any product of value?

More to the point, what happens when you see a product on a topic you want, by an author you like, that's only available in PDF format?

You make a very good point about the industry relying on pdf.
That wont last and I wish I had some good alternatives but I dont


If I could only get a product I wanted in pdf I would probibly pay for it but not much.

 

[Arkhandus]

.......I just have to chime in one more time, briefly, on another point that CD has still continued to ignore for some reason.

Print products can be scanned in and then distributed freely by any jerk with a scanner who doesn't care for the law, and doesn't mind the chance that he/she may get caught.

Therefore printed products have no more value in your own terms, Chaos Disciple, than digital products. The only difference is that the printed product gets scanned and then put on the Internet, while the PDF product just went directly from the publisher's computer to whatever Internet PDF store they use (whereas the print version would have been printed from their computer first, anyway, and then distributed in physical form before getting scanned and digitized).

Even if you print a product by chiseling it onto plates of iron or tablets of stone, it just takes one snap of a camera (well, per page or wall or whatever it is they're photographing), and one trip to the scanner, before copies of the product could be distributed on the Internet for free by some jerk.

Face it. Your argument holds no water. It is nothing more than a flawed argument in favor of illegal software/file piracy, which is badwrong.

(of course, it's entirely possible that point was missed just cuz he may've put me and others on /ignore)