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Message: <blockquote data-quote="El Mahdi" data-source="post: 4753280" data-attributes="member: 59506">The Bad:  People who download pirated copies only, and do not spend any money to RPG companies for anything - no hardcopies or pdf's - as an alternative to buying hardcopies, but would buy hardcopies if pirated pdf's weren't available. BUT, how bad is this really? I would wager that the number of people who fall into this group is probably extremely small.   The Good: People can download a pdf in order to read over and peruse the book. If they like it, they'll buy it (the hardcopy). I would also wager that the group of people who go pdf only (no hardcopies at all) are probably a small group also. Pirated pdf's are a check on the industry for overpriced pdf's. Now some will argue that WotC has the right to price them at whatever value they want. I'd partly agree. WotC can set the price, customers set the value. If WotC pdf's were provided at a price equal to what customers believe their value is, more people would buy them than pirate them. The problem lies in getting this through the thick headed corporate mindset. Until digital paper becomes a full reality and common, hardcopy books will remain the medium of choice, and pdf's an add-on for the book.   The Neutral: Many people who download pirated copies would not have bought either the hardcopy or pdf anyways. Therefore, no loss of a certain customer.  No loss of a certain customer = no loss of revenue.    The Verdict:  I believe that piracy has almost no effect on hardcopy sales (and may even increase them slightly). Piracy has significant impact on sale of overpriced pdf's, but little or no effect on sales of reasonably priced pdf's. This means a possible significant impact to publishers (if they overprice), but a benificial impact for customers.  So, mostly a neutral impact for publishers, but a good impact for customers.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/glasses.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt="B-)" title="Glasses    B-)" data-shortname="B-)" /></blockquote>

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