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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hollywood" data-source="post: 1120006" data-attributes="member: 7408">Actually they aren't.  They are offering WMA format mostly.  The MP3 format does not contain any Digitial Rights security in it, unlike the latest WMA (Windows Media) format does or for Mac the latest QuickTime format.Nonetheless, I am definetly opposed to said licenses that restrict the rights on how the user's can use the item in which they purchased for their own personal use.  At roughly $99, give or take, the cost to download, you can buy the same # of songs as you can on a CD for roughly the same price.  However, unlike a CD which you can still rip with some very throughly ripping software, in many cases you are limited in what you can do with the DRM (digital rights media) since the license, and the physical player (i.e. the computer), restrict your personal use of said media.  Frankly, while I don't trade mp3s, I do rip them from all cds I buy and never use the cds again except for display purposes in a cd-rack.This DRM for music downloads is very similiar in nature to the DivX movement that failed miserably.  The media companies, i.e. film and music for starters, haven't really learned any lessons from the mp3 swapping problem.  They simply think that allow people to buy restricted single copies of media for roughly the same price they are currently selling for in a bundle will entice people to stop [litigation aside].  It doesn't, it just simply makes people less willing to deal with it.  Bottom line is that the media companies need to start coming up with creative ideas on how to allow customers to use the media they bought the rights to use without limiting their personal use of it, AND reducing cost of said media.  To start with, and this is by now completely off-topic, would be not paying media "stars" such, and this doesn't apply to all artists or producers either, inane amounts of money.  Yes, most films have had the warning of "Do not make unauthorized copies" for years, back in the Betamax and VHS era and now into the DVD and beyond era too.  Ever make a copy of a VHS tape?  I did especially after having one or two VHS machines go bad and eating tapes I liked.  Same with DVDs.   I'll burn a DVD if need be, no matter what the licensing says just as I rip mp3s, especially if it gets used a lot.  I'd much rather abuse a copied DVD/CD/whatever than abuse a $20+ DVD.Of course they do, until they begin to restrict what a person can do or not do in the name of personal use.  Doing so makes them no less valid as far as the law goes, unless of course some pervision of the license makes it unenforceable, however, it makes the license a lot less desireable for end-users to want to agree to.  Especially when the only "players" of the data the license pertains to enforce the license itself.  Frankly, the only way to enforce a license that entails restrictions on personal use is through physical means, such as computers only being able to play DRM X number of times.  Otherwise, you'd have to snoop in on every house hold in the nation or world to see if they were following your license to the letter when it comes to personal use.  Obviously its a lot easier find out about licensing violations if/when distribution happens.Well, that may be true.. but if CMP is taking MONEY for a pre-order before the product is shipped, then that may be an issue depending on state/country laws where they are located.All other legalities aside, no I would not.Well, I'd imagine that if it was in XML format and they really didn't want just anyone opening it in IE or XMLSpy or other said tool, they'd encrypt it.  But then again, encryption can be broken [PDF, Office, etc. encryptions are already broken, so anything CMP or similiar level of company is able to beg, borrow or steal, would not be a huge hurdle for a motivated individual... the computer gaming world, heck even DVD world, has proven that out].  Outside of encryption, or obsufication, if the XML is distributed in the clear, no matter what the license actually says, unless CMP or Wizards is going to come and look and see just how and end-user is using the XML and what reader/viewer/editor the user is using in, then its a moot point.  Use it how you see fit.   However, if you convert it into a different format and start redistributing it, you may very well have a enforceable legal issue.  Not to mention, if someone were to create an importer for a different RPG program and distributed it at large, then that may be an enforceable action since it would be a reader that is neither PCGen or ETools.This is probably a moot point, because I doubt the license will have that clause in it, mainly due to the open-source nature of PCGen.  You would have to specify a license for the data so that it only can be read by a certain distro of PCGen. Otherwise by having the license say that the data is useable by PCGen, without distro affliation, anyone can take the PCGen souce, under the LGPL license, and create their own distro of PCGen that does something different such as translating the data into different formats.At the end, I'm all for protecting an individual's [be it a true individual or company] Intellectual Property.  It is their property and they should be able to profit from it without being undermined by unauthorized distribution [i.e. file swapping of music or video or software, etc.].  However, at the same time, protecting IP should not go so far as to trample the individual user's personal use rights either.  Obviously as far as datasets go for stuff like Arcana Unearthed, the license should protect the right of Monte Cook and his staff for having produced the content and the rights of CMP who took the time to put in into a dataset to make sure they get fair compensation for the use of said data [and of course that means no redistribution without express permission].  Beyond that any attempts for the license to say that it can only be used by X product(s) is bunk, especially when there are no licenses in any of Monte's [for example] PDFs or books that limit me on how I can use the data contain in those formats with regards to my personal use.</blockquote>

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