[FDP] Big News!

[Old Fezziwig]

I don't know about print, but I think you're only allowed to copy and paste 10 selections every 10 days, which is a big problem AFAIC, as that's one of the advantages of .pdf to me (allows me to insert things directly into my notes).

Best,
Nick

 

[johnsemlak]

What I really want to know is, what CAN you and CAN you NOT do with these DRM PDF's? I read the Wikipedia definition someone pointed out in another thread, but it only spoke in generalities. With the PDF's from Drive-Thru, can you:

Print?

Copy the file?

Copy & Paste?

One thing I cannot stand is a PDF that disallows me from copying and pasting to my Word Documents, or restricts what sections I can print in some way...

My thoughts exactly.

Some info, but not all, is provided in DriveThru's How To Guide, Detailed Guide, and FAQ.

Another point I'm concerned with is the emphasis on uninstalling all previous versions of Acrobat Reader. I have Acrobat Reader 6, but I also keep a version of Reader 5.0 on my computer, as it is less clunky on my prehistoric computer.

 

[Monte At Home]

What I really want to know is, what CAN you and CAN you NOT do with these DRM PDF's? I read the Wikipedia definition someone pointed out in another thread, but it only spoke in generalities. With the PDF's from Drive-Thru, can you:

Print?

Copy the file?

Copy & Paste?

One thing I cannot stand is a PDF that disallows me from copying and pasting to my Word Documents, or restricts what sections I can print in some way...

Fine questions. The answer to all of them is yes. You can print as much as you want. You can make a backup copy. You can access the file on two different machines. You can cut and paste (although not the entire file, unless it's a very short file).

Seriously...why would anyone use this service?

Another very legitimate question, I believe. The answer is simply this: because they offer electronic files you can't get anywhere else. Some of the files there are out of print products. Some people prefer electronic copies to print. Some people don't have access to a local game store and find shipping charges (usually international shipping charges) to be too high.

I hear from people every week who can't get a lot of print rpg stuff because of where they live. This site will be a godsend to them.

As for price--that's up to each individual publisher. A lot of products there (including all Malhavoc titles) are about half what the print versions cost.

 

[johnsemlak]

I hear from people every week who can't get a lot of print rpg stuff because of where they live. This site will be a godsend to them.

You're hearing from me now I have to go to another country to find a decent RPG store.

Thanks for the info Monte. I am intrigued by DrivethruRPG but I'm waiting to see more on how exaclty this DRM thing works, and what exactly its differences from a standard PDF are.

 

[Cergorach]

Fine questions. The answer to all of them is yes. You can print as much as you want. You can make a backup copy. You can access the file on two different machines. You can cut and paste (although not the entire file, unless it's a very short file).

Correction, you can only copy/paste 10 small sections within a 10 day period, which wouldn't be a problem for a 32 page product, but it would be for a 320 page product.

Another very legitimate question, I believe. The answer is simply this: because they offer electronic files you can't get anywhere else.

Correction, they can get it somewhere else, it's called kazza, bittorent. ftp, newsgroups, etc. See jgbrowning's explanation here:
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?threadid=127041

Some people prefer electronic copies to print.

Which this incarnation and us of adobe DRM kind of breaks. I can't cut and paste to my hearts content, i can't transform it into a txt format to view it on my pda (adobe reader pretty much sucks on windows ce), ican't carry a cdrom around and view it on any computer i want because i'm not allowed to enable the DRM functionality on every pc i use (at work for example the enabling file won't download because the file type has been blocked).

Some people don't have access to a local game store and find shipping charges (usually international shipping charges) to be too high.

The people who don't have national gaming stores are often also the people that don't have access to creditcards paypal or drivethroughrpg accepts.

I hear from people every week who can't get a lot of print rpg stuff because of where they live. This site will be a godsend to them.

They already had that option with rpgnow, but most people who complain don't want to cough up the extra bucks for international shipping, do you really thing they'll pay the DTRPG prices for electronic products? The other 'complainers' don't have access to easy international payment options (such as paypal or an internationally accepted credit/debit card).

As for price--that's up to each individual publisher. A lot of products there (including all Malhavoc titles) are about half what the print versions cost.

Half is acceptable, 10% off retail isn't. But when the 'real' advantages of the pdf format are lost do you really think that people will accept half price? I certainly won't...

 

[Cergorach]

I am intrigued by DrivethruRPG but I'm waiting to see more on how exaclty this DRM thing works, and what exactly its differences from a standard PDF are.

Sign up and follow the procedure that are explained on the site, download the Exalted corebook to see how things work.

 

[Sledge]

Exclusive contracts. Malhavoc's and FDP's PDFs are now exclusively distributed through DriveThru, so there's no other place to get them. Apparently White Wolf owns DriveThru, so all their subsidiary labels can only sell PDFs through DriveThru. Guess I'm gonna have to buy Monte's stuff in print and scan it in myself if I want handy access to it. I don't have a lot of interest in crippleware PDFs, especially given the apparent pricing structure over at DriveThru.

It's as if they don't want sales anymore. I for one will not be buying anymore Malhavoc books if this is the way they are sold. I imagine that the changeover will prove that more customers will be lost. Given the usage restrictions I would call these DRM'd pdfs scarcely more than a demo product.

 

[mroberon1972]

Ya know...

I don't like piracy, but I like this even less...

What the bloody heck good is it if it won't print at a printing house?

 

[Henry]

As a general reminder, and not a specific warning, let's remember to be calm and civil to anyone posting here. This is a major change to many established d20 vendors, I realize, and emotions can run high.

Ya know...

I don't like piracy, but I like this even less...

What the bloody heck good is it if it won't print at a printing house?

I haven't seen anything to indicate it couldn't. Can you be more specific?

 

[Staffan]

I haven't seen anything to indicate it couldn't. Can you be more specific?

Well, the DRM stuff makes it so you can only use the file on certain computers, right? You can add more, but it appears to be a major hassle involving MSNet passwords or something like that.

Wouldn't that make it kind of hard to burn it to a CD, go down to your local copyshop, and print it out from there?

Oh, and another thing... does anyone know if it's possible to print the books to postscript files? Because if you can, it should be a breeze to turn them into non-DRMed PDFs (just use Ghostview/Ghostscript, it's a postscript viewer that lets you convert the ps file to PDF - not with fancy bookmarks and hyperlinks and stuff, but servicable for printing).