Does this bug anyone else?

[buzz]

A guy who just joined my D&D group has a bunch of splats that he downloaded from Kazaa and had printed and bound. The DM just sent us all copies of the new Book of Hallowed Might PDF.

Does anyone else feel bothered or uncomfortable by this kind of activity? Not that I'm afraid of getting "in trouble" or anything. I am just not a big fan of piracy, particularly when were talking about items with a price point in the $10-$30 range. If we were talking about a $600 software package I might have some sympathy, but c'mon.

(N.B.: I am firmly in the "gaming is an inexpensive hobby" camp. As far as I am concerned, gaming is cheap and RPGs are generally underpriced. They simply don't warrant piracy.)

I met my current group via an ad on the 'Net, so these aren't old friends or anything; we're becoming friends, but they're still in the "some guys I game with" category. Great guys, nonetheless.

Should I say anything, or is this really none of my business?

 

[teitan]

I showed my piratethe Dork Tower strip from Dragon, the one where they talk about their favorite game company going out of business and how popular said company is, but everyone pirated their stuff, no one bought it. He got the point.

Jason

 

[Arnwyn]

If you have a copy, it affects you. If you are uncomfortable with this situation, then you should absolutely say something, and discuss the reasons why they are doing it. They may not listen, but at the very least you are taking a stand.

And refuse any copies of pirated material if you disagree with their actions.

 

[pogre]

A guy who just joined my D&D group has a bunch of splats that he downloaded from Kazaa and had printed and bound.

Unless he has access to a copier and binder at work, it could not have been that much cheaper than buying the stuff.

 

[John Crichton]

Yup, definately say something. I have berated one of the players I had for pirating PDF's in the past. I wouldn't stand for it. Of course, I have the money to buy a decent amount of RPG supplies but it still doesn't justify it. Most of the companies don't make enough off this stuff as it is from what I understand...

 

[Psion]

Does anyone else feel bothered or uncomfortable by this kind of activity?

Yes. I appreciate the work that authors do and feel they have the right to be compensated for it.

There is a person in my group that does this. That's his call, but I don't accept copies of his stuff.

 

[buzz]

Unless he has access to a copier and binder at work, it could not have been that much cheaper than buying the stuff.

I assuming he must, seeing as his copies are color, have laminated covers, and use nice spiral bindings.

 

[arwink]

Yep, it bugs me. Fortunately, most of my players aren't real big on downloading stuff of Kazaa and other places, and those that did were quickly discouraged after three weeks of ranting at them.

 

[Drawmack]

He had them printed and bound? That's expensive, at least to get anywhere near the quality he would have gotten from buying the books. From what I have seen the scans are usually very poor quality and printing and binding them will leave you with horrible quality or higher price unless you get a deal somehow.

Here is what I would do (order here is important)
1) Find out where the guy had them printed and bound.

2) Inform them that this activity is illegal and show them the roster of layoffs from WotC in the last year.

3) If it is a professional printer that printed and bound the guys splat books and not a do it yourself place I would report them. It is rediculous for a professional in any industry to aid in piracy of that magnitude.

 

[Janos Audron]

Buzz, I don't know how old you are, or how much you use the internet, but at least with people my age (I'm 18) this is very common (I study computer science at an university, and when, in college, the teacher asks who uses Kazaa (filesharing program) everyone raises his / her hand, out of 100+ people).

Music, video's, D&D books, software, everything just gets downloaded. It's easy, it's free, and no one actually checks if whatever you have is legal or not.

I can understand you feel uncomfortable, and if you don't want to use em, then by all means don't. But, IMO, what they do is their business.

I'd be bothered if you told me that I should stop using downloaded material. Not bothered, as in argue about it, but rolleyes and sigh bothered. If you'd just tell me to stop sending you pirated material, that's something I can understand, applaud even. The first would be telling me what to do, the second is just telling me what you think about it, which is a good thing if you feel uncomfortable.

But if you support $500 piracy, why don't you support 10 books piracy?