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Message: <blockquote data-quote="El Mahdi" data-source="post: 4754416" data-attributes="member: 59506">And you are absolutely right.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Problem is, a company can be "right", and do actions that are legally "right", and still be strategically "wrong". Even an action that's "right" can run a company into the ground by destroying it's customer base. "Right" is all well and good, but if it goes against practical reason (in this case, what's good for the company in the long run) then it's more "foolish" than "right". I'm sure WotC saw this move as a strategic decision that would be best for the company in the long run. However, I don't think they factored in just how bad the backlash in their customer base would be. A Strategic Vision for a company is useless if you alienate your customer base in the process. Research and reason shows that the effects of pdf piracy on sales is a lot less than expectations and is likely mildly beneficial. Disregarding reason, and punishing your customers, is not a recipe for continued success - no matter what your strategic planning tells you.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Effect of piracy has minimal negative impact with possible slight beneficial aspects.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Removing pdf's eliminates a revenue stream. A small stream in all likelihood, but profit is profit.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Removing pdf's, at best, will have no effect on piracy, and may actually increase it (most likely).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Removing pdf's seriously angered your customer base and caused the loss of customers and revenue. Even if only a slight loss, revenue is revenue.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Company strategy is now to spend resources and money on developing policies and medium that will have zero effect on the problem they are attempting to fix. A problem that is more a nuisance, than a serious threat to long term, or even short term, profits and company survival.</li> </ul>Add it all up, and it's a loss for both customer and company. And IMO, more loss for the company than the customer (no matter what, the game will go on whether WotC does or not).   This is a false analogy. Taking a car without permission is theft. Downloading a pdf is not. There is no loss of anything except a potential sale (although not all illegal downloads represent a potential sale). There is no loss or destruction of property. Downloading a pdf, especially with the intention of looking at it to see if one wants to buy the hardcopy version, is nothing more than if one walked into a bookstore and thumbed through a store copy. Except that in the case of the pdf, the "store" copy is not accruing wear and tear from the hands of potential customers. Downloading a pdf as a supplement to a legally bought hardcopy, as opposed to buying an overpriced pdf, is a market adjusting factor. The smart company fixes this problem by offering their pdf's at a price suitable to the market (again, customers determine value - price follows from value). The foolish company, whether technically "right", does what WotC just did. "Right" without "Reason" is useless at best, and most likely counterproductive.</blockquote>

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