Free League forcing Alchemy VTT to remove PDFs - Anti-consumer behaviour?

[Rabulias]

Any licensor (unless they sign a really bad-for-them one-sided deal) can tell a licensee to remove their products from their store and/or hosting. I remember back in 2008 or so that Wizards of the Coast told DriveThruRPG to remove all WotC PDFs from their site. There would be no further sales of the PDFs, and purchasers could not download them again after the cutoff date. I think I got a 30 day warning to download all that I had bought from them. Eventually they returned to sell PDFs in 2012 with dndclassics.com.

I can only hope that we will one day see PDF releases of official 5e books. Sigh.

 

[Nikosandros]

Any licensor (unless they sign a really bad-for-them one-sided deal) can tell a licensee to remove their products from their store and/or hosting. I remember back in 2008 or so that Wizards of the Coast told DriveThruRPG to remove all WotC PDFs from their site. There would be no further sales of the PDFs, and purchasers could not download them again after the cutoff date. I think I got a 30 day warning to download all that I had bought from them. Eventually they returned to sell PDFs in 2012 with dndclassics.com.

They came back on Drivetrhu, but not elsewhere. I had bought several PDFs from Paizo and those are gone. I mean, I do have a personal copy (I have local copies of all my RPG PDFs and they are all backed-up on Dropbox).

I can only hope that we will one day see PDF releases of official 5e books. Sigh.

It sure would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[delericho]

7 days seems a bit short notice though. What if somebody is away for the week?

That's exactly what happened to me with some WotC PDFs I bought from the Paizo store, only to lose as the rights were pulled at short notice.

I learned my lesson from that one: as soon as any PDF is bought it is immediately downloaded and backed up.

 

[Rabulias]

They came back on Drivetrhu, but not elsewhere. I had bought several PDFs from Paizo and those are gone. I mean, I do have a personal copy (I have local copies of all my RPG PDFs and they are all backed-up on Dropbox).

That's exactly what happened to me with some WotC PDFs I bought from the Paizo store, only to lose as the rights were pulled at short notice.

Oh yeah, I had forgotten there were other platforms selling PDFs back then. The only PDFs I bought from Paizo were some Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine PDFs, and you could still download those I think.

I learned my lesson from that one: as soon as any PDF is bought it is immediately downloaded and backed up.

Yes, I forgot to add to my last post. Everyone should make backups of all their purchases that they value.

It sure would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.

Me neither, but I keep holding out hope.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

I find it interesting that they can remove things you already 'own' without your consent.

If a digital product is not saved locally on your own hard drive and accessible offline, you don't own it.

 

[gban007]

Hey all. I recently purchased a bundle of Free League games on Alchemy VTT. Pretty awesome, was looking forward to playing a bunch of sweet Swedish-published games. It included access to a bunch of games via the Alchemy platform and the pdf downloadable for each. All good. Unfortunately, I've received an email from Alchemy this morning saying Free League are asking them to remove pdf download access to their games. Alchemy state that they don't like this but are complying. Customers will have 7 days to download the pdfs of the games they purchased before access is removed. I'll post the email below.

I think this is a bad show from Free League, pretty anti-consumer. It reeks badly of the kind of own-goal a certain larger ttrpg corporation has been getting absolutely trashed for lately (rightfully, in some cases). I certainly won't be giving Free League another penny myself and I would encourage others to avoid purchasing directly from them as well. I'll attach a screenshot of part of the email I recieved.

Pretty grim eh? What a hassle just to play some fun games with your pals.

I recall looking at the bundle, as could have been interested in PDFs, but the bundle seemed to say was only for software for the Alchemy VTT, and so if not using the VTT, didn't seem ablny benefit - was there something that said PDFs also available, or is that more from a general understanding that any game currently on Alchemy allows for a PDF download?

 

[Spectral Anomaly]

I recall looking at the bundle, as could have been interested in PDFs, but the bundle seemed to say was only for software for the Alchemy VTT, and so if not using the VTT, didn't seem ablny benefit - was there something that said PDFs also available, or is that more from a general understanding that any game currently on Alchemy allows for a PDF download?

When the deal first went live, there was a blurb in the Bundle Details section on HB (right side of the screen on desktop just under the charity info – no clue where it appears on mobile) that specifically said that PDF downloads were also available for those who would like to use the content offline or with a different VTT. It appears that that language has now been removed.

 

[gban007]

When the deal first went live, there was a blurb in the Bundle Details section on HB (right side of the screen on desktop just under the charity info – no clue where it appears on mobile) that specifically said that PDF downloads were also available for those who would like to use the content offline or with a different VTT. It appears that that language has now been removed.

Ah, in that case very consumer unfriendly to basically change terms of the bundle after purchase, I think they should have fixed for new purchases but for people who already have purchased PDFs should have been maintained somehow, even if meant giving drivethru codes or the like if the VTT couldn't support splitting the functionality.
If FL changed polices, they should provide the codes, if Alchemy messed up they should work with FL and if needed pay for more codes as such.

 

[Retreater]

Ah, in that case very consumer unfriendly to basically change terms of the bundle after purchase, I think they should have fixed for new purchases but for people who already have purchased PDFs should have been maintained somehow, even if meant giving drivethru codes or the like if the VTT couldn't support splitting the functionality.
If FL changed polices, they should provide the codes, if Alchemy messed up they should work with FL and if needed pay for more codes as such.

Well, it's a charity bundle. I mean unless you want to force the charity to cough up more money, I'm not sure what can be done.
(I had a friend who is pretty well off financially write to Humble Bundle and demand a refund when he realized this was for a VTT he doesn't use. I thought it was pretty lousy of him to ask for money back from a charity.)

 

[Count_Zero]

Any licensor (unless they sign a really bad-for-them one-sided deal) can tell a licensee to remove their products from their store and/or hosting. I remember back in 2008 or so that Wizards of the Coast told DriveThruRPG to remove all WotC PDFs from their site. There would be no further sales of the PDFs, and purchasers could not download them again after the cutoff date. I think I got a 30 day warning to download all that I had bought from them. Eventually they returned to sell PDFs in 2012 with dndclassics.com.

I can only hope that we will one day see PDF releases of official 5e books. Sigh.

And we didn't get all of them back - I still haven't gotten my OG Gangbusters back.