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Message: <blockquote data-quote="seankreynolds" data-source="post: 1394850" data-attributes="member: 3029">I'm not sure what you mean by "this applies to." If you're asking if I think those people do not have justifiable value in their old material, no; there is value in it. However, even for those people the CD-ROM isn't going to destract from sales of their story collections or art collections. Really, if you're a fan of GRRM, and you have the choice of spending $50 for a CD-ROM compilation that has a couple of GRRM stories or $20 on a new hardback that's _entirely_ GRRM stories, I think the fans are going to go with the hardback. Likewise, Brom fans would prefer one of his print books (with 100+ illos) for $35 to a CD-ROM compilation that contains perhaps 20 low-quality scans of his art. In other words, these established authors/artists shouldn't see the CD-ROM as competition to products for which they actually make royalties. The release of the CD-ROM isn't going to factor into the sales of their print book in any statistically significant sort of way. People aren't buying the CD-ROMs for all the great short stories (many of them aren't that great) or all the art (all of which are screen resolution at best), they want the gaming articles. If you want the stories or the art, there are far more convenient ways to get them, and far more convenient formats in which to read them or look at them.And in terms of cost/benefit for the authors/artists, remember, we're in the era of e-publishing. There's nothing stopping Author/Artist X from right now producing a self-published PDF or print-on-demand collection of his short stories/prints, and at more profit than any reprint payments from the magazine.Well, AFAIK Mr. Gygax gave up all rights to his prior Dragon articles when he left TSR (part of his exit agreement, through which he kept the rights to Gord the Rogue and other novel characters he created and used), but he'd have to say whether or not I'm correct (and it's not really relevant anyway). But that aside, yes, there are a few who could do that, and there's nothing stopping them from publishing such a collection.*  The question is, does the existence of the CD-ROM mean that people won't buy the Complete Gygax Article Collection (CGAC)? Do you think that people who want the collected articles of Gygax would prefer them in a book or PDF all by themselves (the CGAC), rather than interspersed over 250 issues -- and 250 separate files, mind you -- of a magazine complete with ads and such?  My answers: No, the CD-ROM won't stop people from buying the book. Yes, I think these buyers would prefer a CGAC to the CD-ROM. (They might still find the CD-ROM valuable, but would find the CGAC more convenient).* This is a point I want to reinforce: If the author or artist retains any rights to his work, then he can go ahead and make his own compilation product of that work. I don't think the CD-ROM is going to detract from that, any more than using Book A using OGL feat B from Book C makes a person any less likely to buy Book C. And for the record I'm not knocking Dragon, the CD-ROM, or the quality of the authors and artists. I like the folks at Dragon, I like my CD-ROM, and there have been short stories and many pieces of art I liked. I just don't think the CD-ROM is a threat to other works.</blockquote>

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