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<blockquote data-quote="JDWiker" data-source="post: 1534216" data-attributes="member: 10344">Piracy, PDFs, and TGMWow, great discussion!When Rich Redman, Marc Schmalz, Stan!, and I formed The Game Mechanics, since our goal was to sell PDFs (initially, followed by print versions later), this question weighed heavily on our minds. After some debate, we decided that file-sharing wasn't likely to affect our sales overmuch.And, so far, it hasn't. Logically, the small companies--such as The Game Mechanics--would feel the most pressure from file-sharing, and a company that produces PDFs of all its products would seem to be a prime target. But it just doesn't seem to be making an impact on our sales.From some research I did (including talking to some pretty hardcore Internet &quot;pirates&quot;), the philosophy is mainly &quot;Screw the big companies!&quot;, so it's not surprising that smaller companies don't get targeted as much. Now, obviously, some of those folks are just rationalizing, and some couldn't tell the difference between a big company and a small one. (The distinction almost seems to be &quot;Have I heard of this company?&quot;) And the list of products I've seen ripped and converted to PDFs is heavily tilted toward the big guys (TSR/Wizards in particular)--though that could simply be because they've been around longer, and therefore produced more material.If you're interested in this topic, and you plan to be at Gen Con Indy this year, The Game Mechanics is hosting a debate on this very subject at Gen Con, on Saturday afternoon (&quot;Internet Piracy: Impact vs. Ethics&quot; at 3 pm). It's our intention to present the basic arguments for and against file-sharing, then open up the floor to comments from the audience. If you've got an hour to spare, we'd appreciate getting your insights!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JDWiker, post: 1534216, member: 10344"] [b]Piracy, PDFs, and TGM[/b] Wow, great discussion! When Rich Redman, Marc Schmalz, Stan!, and I formed The Game Mechanics, since our goal was to sell PDFs (initially, followed by print versions later), this question weighed heavily on our minds. After some debate, we decided that file-sharing wasn't likely to affect our sales overmuch. And, so far, it hasn't. Logically, the small companies--such as The Game Mechanics--would feel the most pressure from file-sharing, and a company that produces PDFs of all its products would seem to be a prime target. But it just doesn't seem to be making an impact on our sales. From some research I did (including talking to some pretty hardcore Internet "pirates"), the philosophy is mainly "Screw the big companies!", so it's not surprising that smaller companies don't get targeted as much. Now, obviously, some of those folks are just rationalizing, and some couldn't tell the difference between a big company and a small one. (The distinction almost seems to be "Have I heard of this company?") And the list of products I've seen ripped and converted to PDFs is heavily tilted toward the big guys (TSR/Wizards in particular)--though that could simply be because they've been around longer, and therefore produced more material. If you're interested in this topic, and you plan to be at Gen Con Indy this year, The Game Mechanics is hosting a debate on this very subject at Gen Con, on Saturday afternoon ("Internet Piracy: Impact vs. Ethics" at 3 pm). It's our intention to present the basic arguments for and against file-sharing, then open up the floor to comments from the audience. If you've got an hour to spare, we'd appreciate getting your insights! [/QUOTE]

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