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<blockquote data-quote="Roudi" data-source="post: 1779146" data-attributes="member: 12423">This arguement has been repeated so many times that restating it might be a tad redundant.&nbsp; Nonetheless, here it goes.Having a product in a format like PDF that is relatively easy to pirate might hurt sales.&nbsp; But you really have to ask yourselves - the people unwilling to pay for a product, and who actively go and pirate the book, what makes you think they would have bought it if that was their only option?&nbsp; &quot;Piracy&quot; of a product might run rampant, but can you actually say that all those with pirated copies of your book would have bought the book if it wasn't available to download?Publishers have got to stop seeing every pirated copy of their book as a lost sale.&nbsp; As far as I'm concerned, the sale was never there to be made.&nbsp; You are dealing with primarily with freeloaders who are only acquiring what they can easily download.&nbsp; They never would bother to buy the book at all.This is not to say that every pirater of PDFs is like this.&nbsp; I'm sure there are at least a few sales lost to piracy.&nbsp; There's also the arguement that a downloadable PDF version might actually promote the product and inspire further sales.&nbsp; Regardless, I feel that being of the opinion that releasing a product to PDF is inviting the ravenous pirating dogs to descend upon you and steal away all profit, is to fall victim to popular misconception.&nbsp; I see it in the above poster, and I see it as well in WotC's marketing department.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Roudi, post: 1779146, member: 12423"] This arguement has been repeated so many times that restating it might be a tad redundant. Nonetheless, here it goes. Having a product in a format like PDF that is relatively easy to pirate might hurt sales. But you really have to ask yourselves - the people unwilling to pay for a product, and who actively go and pirate the book, what makes you think they would have bought it if that was their only option? "Piracy" of a product might run rampant, but can you actually say that all those with pirated copies of your book would have bought the book if it wasn't available to download? Publishers have got to stop seeing every pirated copy of their book as a lost sale. As far as I'm concerned, the sale was never there to be made. You are dealing with primarily with freeloaders who are only acquiring what they can easily download. They never would bother to buy the book at all. This is not to say that every pirater of PDFs is like this. I'm sure there are at least a few sales lost to piracy. There's also the arguement that a downloadable PDF version might actually promote the product and inspire further sales. Regardless, I feel that being of the opinion that releasing a product to PDF is inviting the ravenous pirating dogs to descend upon you and steal away all profit, is to fall victim to popular misconception. I see it in the above poster, and I see it as well in WotC's marketing department. [/QUOTE]

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