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<blockquote data-quote="Estlor" data-source="post: 1537653" data-attributes="member: 7261">I think that copyright infringement in the RPG industry is a somewhat different creature than it is in the music and movie industries.&nbsp;&nbsp;Part of what drives modern copyright infringement is the perception of an imbalance between cost and worth.&nbsp; When a commodity (such as a CD or tickets to a movie) becomes prohibitively expensive, individuals who enjoy consuming that commodity will take great pains to find a lower cost alternative that allows them to continue to consume the item.&nbsp; In this case, downloading MP3s with the rationale that, &quot;I only want one or two songs, why should I pay $15-$18 for the whole album?&quot; or downloading movies with the rationale that, &quot;There is no way a movie is worth $9 when it will be free on cable in a year.&quot;&nbsp; Connected to this mindset is the idea of enforced quality control.&nbsp; The infringer begins to think, &quot;My downloading this will force the record companies to only book artists that can put out an entire CD of good music at a time.&quot;&nbsp; The idea is the current state of an industry promotes a commodity at a price out of line with what it is worth, and that somehow by obtaining that commodity through a 3rd party broker you force the industry to adapt to your demands or suffer.&nbsp;&nbsp;Now, with the RPG industry, the cost of the product is hardly out of line with its worth.&nbsp; There may be some instances when an individual is hesitant to buy a product (such as Complete Warrior if they dislike proliferation of prestige classes).&nbsp; In those cases, the idea of cost/worth inequity comes into play.&nbsp; But it seems RPG infringement falls into the &quot;try before you buy&quot; camp or the &quot;I steal for fun&quot; camp.&nbsp; In this case, the habitual thieves have no intention of buying the item in question anyway, and there is nothing the RPG company can do to gain their sale.&nbsp; The trial runers are likely to buy the product if they find value in it, and their downloading of a PDF is comparable to leafing through the book in the store.&nbsp;&nbsp;Now, myself, I'll state some personal views.&nbsp;&nbsp;I have previously downloaded MP3s through various file sharing programs.&nbsp; The RIAA crackdown forced me to go &quot;legit&quot; (I pay for Rhapsody and am content with streaming audio), but I had no qualms beforehand because I felt the only person I was &quot;hurting&quot; was a record label that was guilty of price fixing in the first place.&nbsp; In truth, many times I bought the CD of a new up-and-coming artist because I listened to MP3s of it and liked what I heard.&nbsp; 90% of the CDs I bought between the years of 1999 and 2002 were the result of file sharing discoveries or the residuals.&nbsp;&nbsp;I don't download movies.&nbsp; The prices of DVDs have become so reasonable and the availability of movies for rent at Blockbuster and local libraries makes it a waste of time to do that.&nbsp; However, I will not bat an eye at downloading episodes of the current season of the Sopranos.&nbsp; I refuse to pay for digital cable and HBO for one show (a nearly $80 expense in my area) when I plan to buy the season later on DVD (a $60 expense that is permanent).&nbsp; Because I don't want to wait, I download, watch, then delete the episode.&nbsp; I'll own it soon enough, I just hate not being able to discuss the show with people who have HBO and are currently watching it.&nbsp;&nbsp;I don't download RPG PDFs.&nbsp; I hate the PDF format as a document replacement.&nbsp; Nothing beats the good old dead tree version in my book.&nbsp; As a result, I won't buy a PDF product if that's the only way you can get a book.&nbsp; The only PDF products I own are out of print TSR material and print books of formerly PDF only products (specifically several Malhavoc books).&nbsp; Yes, I may be missing out on some high-quality work, but if they really want my money they'd work out a print deal with another publisher.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Estlor, post: 1537653, member: 7261"] I think that copyright infringement in the RPG industry is a somewhat different creature than it is in the music and movie industries. Part of what drives modern copyright infringement is the perception of an imbalance between cost and worth. When a commodity (such as a CD or tickets to a movie) becomes prohibitively expensive, individuals who enjoy consuming that commodity will take great pains to find a lower cost alternative that allows them to continue to consume the item. In this case, downloading MP3s with the rationale that, "I only want one or two songs, why should I pay $15-$18 for the whole album?" or downloading movies with the rationale that, "There is no way a movie is worth $9 when it will be free on cable in a year." Connected to this mindset is the idea of enforced quality control. The infringer begins to think, "My downloading this will force the record companies to only book artists that can put out an entire CD of good music at a time." The idea is the current state of an industry promotes a commodity at a price out of line with what it is worth, and that somehow by obtaining that commodity through a 3rd party broker you force the industry to adapt to your demands or suffer. Now, with the RPG industry, the cost of the product is hardly out of line with its worth. There may be some instances when an individual is hesitant to buy a product (such as Complete Warrior if they dislike proliferation of prestige classes). In those cases, the idea of cost/worth inequity comes into play. But it seems RPG infringement falls into the "try before you buy" camp or the "I steal for fun" camp. In this case, the habitual thieves have no intention of buying the item in question anyway, and there is nothing the RPG company can do to gain their sale. The trial runers are likely to buy the product if they find value in it, and their downloading of a PDF is comparable to leafing through the book in the store. Now, myself, I'll state some personal views. I have previously downloaded MP3s through various file sharing programs. The RIAA crackdown forced me to go "legit" (I pay for Rhapsody and am content with streaming audio), but I had no qualms beforehand because I felt the only person I was "hurting" was a record label that was guilty of price fixing in the first place. In truth, many times I bought the CD of a new up-and-coming artist because I listened to MP3s of it and liked what I heard. 90% of the CDs I bought between the years of 1999 and 2002 were the result of file sharing discoveries or the residuals. I don't download movies. The prices of DVDs have become so reasonable and the availability of movies for rent at Blockbuster and local libraries makes it a waste of time to do that. However, I will not bat an eye at downloading episodes of the current season of the Sopranos. I refuse to pay for digital cable and HBO for one show (a nearly $80 expense in my area) when I plan to buy the season later on DVD (a $60 expense that is permanent). Because I don't want to wait, I download, watch, then delete the episode. I'll own it soon enough, I just hate not being able to discuss the show with people who have HBO and are currently watching it. I don't download RPG PDFs. I hate the PDF format as a document replacement. Nothing beats the good old dead tree version in my book. As a result, I won't buy a PDF product if that's the only way you can get a book. The only PDF products I own are out of print TSR material and print books of formerly PDF only products (specifically several Malhavoc books). Yes, I may be missing out on some high-quality work, but if they really want my money they'd work out a print deal with another publisher. [/QUOTE]

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