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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 5221493" data-attributes="member: 704">Outcome matters as much as intentBefore anyone jumps down my throat, I want to say first that I do believe many copy protection schemes are flawed and unenforceable.  But as with any issue, analogies can only work up to a point before you have to consider the objective facts of the situation at hand.The law might not measure intent, but it outcome does matter.  If intent was the only thing that mattered, than drunk driving would not be a crime.  No one, sober or not, really plans on getting involved in a multiple fatality accident when they get behind the wheel.  That is why there are laws that exist which have nothing to do with intent.Of course, sharing some mp3 files or access to DDI is not the same as causing a fatality through reckless endangerment.  And not all people who download content illegally were going to actually buy the product.  But the simple fact is that digital copies are functionally perfect and cost nothing to make.  If exactly 1 person buys a legit copy, and then makes one illegal copy, and everyone else he shares it with only makes 1 illegal copy, then you will eventually have 1 copy for every person who could have bought the item.  And while not everyone who downloads illegally was going to purchase it, you must also admit that there are some people who might have purchased the item but did not because they were able to use a free copy.Filesharing can make a given digital work more popular and it can increase sales.  However, it will only do this for the top tier products.  If you think in terms of videogames, then digital Piracy would not really have as big an effect on something like Assassins Creed as it would on Rayman Raving Rabbids.  If it is top tier and top quality, it will do well no matter what.  The piracy of the title will hurt the final sales numbers, but not enough to make it unprofitable.  But something that is merely a 'good' game, but not great?  That will go from being profitiable to being unprofitable.The solution is to provide demo access that allows just enough access to be useful or to test it, but to withhold enough to make buying the full product worth while.  For DDI, this might be letting the user access PHB1 classes and races up to level 4 or so and access to MM1 monsters within the same level.For the matter at hand, I think that sharing a DDI account for character builder access is not entirely unreasonable.  But I would be very hesitant to share access to the full online compendium.  I think wizards could work around the problem by letting people with a DDI account create and share a few 'demo' accounts attached to their subscription.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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