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<blockquote data-quote="Brax" data-source="post: 5368059" data-attributes="member: 29608">I seriously doubt that locking things down further will solve anything.&nbsp; WotC's software or hardware engineers will likely lose an arms race to the hordes of pirates out there.Almost every piece of software ever made has been cracked.&nbsp; Multiple 'secure' hardware devices have also been cracked:&nbsp; Xbox, PS3, iPhone, you name it and there are likely ways of breaking the device's security.As I said before, the only way I can see to truly defeat piracy is to come up with a better product than what the pirates offer.<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Timeliness could be a factor:&nbsp; Faster updates from the source (WotC) when compared to piracy (scanning rulebooks, OCR, updating with errata, when WotC has a head start). 
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<li data-xf-list-type="ul">A reasonable price could be a factor:&nbsp; No physical book means no printing and distribution costs.&nbsp; Low price + legal is more attractive than free + hassle + illegal. 
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<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Innovative, hard to steal features could be a factor:&nbsp; Sharing characters/ story ideas / whatever through a community based web site and matching service for games for instance.</li>
</ul>All of these things are better than what pirates could offer, and so the pirate's product looks worse.I like the idea of a e-book for D&amp;D books, since I have so many.&nbsp; It might offset the price of the device, even, if the resulting e-books were lower in cost than the printed ones.&nbsp; Ultimately I would rather use something that can work directly on my PC / Laptop, though.&nbsp; I never know what I may want to do with my D&amp;D book contents and having them on the PC means I have future flexibility you can't get with a proprietary device.&nbsp; Maybe like copying and pasting sections into my own DM notes for an upcoming session.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brax, post: 5368059, member: 29608"] I seriously doubt that locking things down further will solve anything. WotC's software or hardware engineers will likely lose an arms race to the hordes of pirates out there. Almost every piece of software ever made has been cracked. Multiple 'secure' hardware devices have also been cracked: Xbox, PS3, iPhone, you name it and there are likely ways of breaking the device's security. As I said before, the only way I can see to truly defeat piracy is to come up with a better product than what the pirates offer. [LIST] [*]Timeliness could be a factor: Faster updates from the source (WotC) when compared to piracy (scanning rulebooks, OCR, updating with errata, when WotC has a head start). [*]A reasonable price could be a factor: No physical book means no printing and distribution costs. Low price + legal is more attractive than free + hassle + illegal. [*]Innovative, hard to steal features could be a factor: Sharing characters/ story ideas / whatever through a community based web site and matching service for games for instance. [/LIST] All of these things are better than what pirates could offer, and so the pirate's product looks worse. I like the idea of a e-book for D&D books, since I have so many. It might offset the price of the device, even, if the resulting e-books were lower in cost than the printed ones. Ultimately I would rather use something that can work directly on my PC / Laptop, though. I never know what I may want to do with my D&D book contents and having them on the PC means I have future flexibility you can't get with a proprietary device. Maybe like copying and pasting sections into my own DM notes for an upcoming session. [/QUOTE]

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