Group Licenses for PDFs?

[Mark]

I buy two copies of a work and give a copy to my DM. Later I stop seeing this DM and get a new group and DM. Can I revoke the old DMs copy and give my 2nd copy to the new DM?

This is the heart of licensing and transferable licensing. Remember I bought the license. The records say I bought two copies. But what you want is a way for me transfer the rights to someone else. That's where it becomes ugly.

How long does the publisher have to remember how many copies you have bought? Perhaps 6 months later I need another copy, should I get a discount then?

A discount on multiple copies seems like a viable solution given that trusting the buyer is at the heart of any sale or arrangement. It is merely a way to allow the buyer to show their support and gain a benefit from that show of support.

It does not allow legally for any transferrence of licensing or distribution, nor does it imply that you are allowing an unlimited number of copies to be printed or distributed in any way. It is a specific number of copies being sold at a specifc time and price.

In this case, you are offering a number of copies at the time of purchase and not transferring any license or setting up a license to distribute. Remembering old sales is not at issue if this transaction states that the discount applies to the number of copies being purchased at the time of purchase.

 

[Lizard]

Anyone offer "Group Licenses" for PDF files? I'm thinking of using some PDF products, and it'd be nice if everyone in my group could view them. With paper books, I can show people things when they're over, or lend them the actual book(s). I'd like to have the same legal freedom with PDFs.

Print out one copy of the PDF. Treat it 'like a book', i.e, let people borrow it, show it to people, etc.

IMO, having one digital copy and one physical copy isn't immoral. Neither, for that matter, is having multiple digital copies on YOUR machines -- i.e, one at work and one at home. It's when you start distributing the files to other machines, or make multiple print-outs, that morality grows hazy.

 

[Cergorach]

Guys, no offense, but this is ridiculess! We're talking here about $10 electronic products, if people want to go the Liscence way, that's way to much hassle. Plus you have a problem that you cannot address a single legal entity to answer for misuse of the Liscence. If you want go for the buy five now, get one free approach, much less hassle and gets the same effect accross. But i think it will still be to much hassle, mostly because so very few people will utilize it. I would prefer it a lot more if there was a general donation button on the site of each publisher, that way when we want to show our apprciation we can...

 

[DDK]

Approach Adobe as a unified group with a representative.

Has anyone thought about approaching Adobe with this, among other, problems with PDF publishing?

AFAIK, the RPG PDF publishing industry is unique. I certainly haven't come across anything like it in any other sector of the industry.

Since this place seems to be a hive of RPG PDF publishers, why not unite and form a lobby group. Appoint a spokesperson and approach Adobe with a list of problems you would like addressed and work with them to create a better publishing environment for everyone.

I'm almost positive it would be fairly simple for Adobe to add in a serial number function to individual PDF's. That alone would solve many of the problems faced by this unique industry. Adobe could profit by it through selling special versions of Acrobat, especially designed for the online distribution of copyrighted PDF's.

It's not as far-fetched as you may think...

 

[Ghostwind]

Perhaps I am missing the point, but I think some of you are trying to make this more difficult than it has to be. Like Mark said, the heart of any pdf sale is the trust that the consumer will do the right thing and not distribute it to everyone he knows. If we go about trying to create complex serial number/passwords or special viewing software, you will effectively kill off a major percentage of sales.

Since the trust issue is what we are basing everything off of, why not simply go with a multiple purchase discount option? This is a simplistic and easy to implement option that will allow honest consumers a way of saying "we support what you are doing" by giving them a bit of a break for buying more than one copy at a time.

Using Joe's example of switching gaming groups, the multiple purchase only applies to the first group. If you want the new group to have the pdf, they would have to buy it again with the first at full price and the rest at a discount. Think of it in these terms, each time the discounted purchase is made, that is letting another player have a copy with the publisher's blessing. As a publisher, you are trusting that the number of multiple copies being bought are equal to the number of folks who will be receiving a copy of the product.

To me, this seems like the best approach to take (even more so that the donation button suggestion, which yields especially low results most of the time). You are openly showing the consumer that you are putting a measure of trust in their hands and giving them a bit of a break in doing so.

 

[malladin]

Just a quick suggestion for how a group licence may work with regards to multiple downloads...

Given that the vast majority of PDF sales go through RPG Now I think it could be handled through their website (Sorry James & the guys if this sounds like I'm making more work for you ).

You could define a group by having links between customer accounts on the site (probably best to have a reasonable working maximum for any group size, say somewhere between 7 and 10?). There could be a standard price increase percentage for a group licence purchase (say 10%?, or possibly could be set by the publisher). The publisher would have some sort of flag to say whether they wanted to activate group licences, so that you don't have to let people do it if you don't want to.

When someone buys a product with a group licence the site then emails around all the group member accounts to tell the other group members that one of their number has purchased a group licence for the product in question and give them a download link.

That's a simple way for how I can see it working...

any other thoughts?

 

[Mark]

Welcome to the boards, malladin!

When someone buys a product with a group licence the site then emails around all the group member accounts to tell the other group members that one of their number has purchased a group licence for the product in question and give them a download link.

That's a simple way for how I can see it working...

any other thoughts?

That's an interesting suggestion, allows the pub to keep track of who is included in the multiple copies deal (we really need to stop calling it a "license"), and allows just those people to have "official" access to updates such as errata, upgrades and patches. The purchaser would need to include the Email addy and information of all of the people included in the multiple purchase deal for the pub to be able to easily track it, and the pub would need to clear the additional Email addies for downloads. Well done, malladin! I like it!

 

[Nifft]

What about for a Yahoo! group, for example? The membership is on-record for any given time, and I can confirm that less than 10 people will receive access to anything I upload. (I'll give access to any company which wants to "audit".)

Finally, what's wrong with having "group" licenses be for a set number of people? This would help out Convention gamers -- they'd know exactly how big their group would be ahead of time -- and normal groups. I'd say 1 license per 5 people is reasonable.

-- Nifft

 

[Priest]

Nift,

I am looking for content for the first Issue of the D20 Publishers & Writers Journal, and would love it if I could get you to write up a 100- 200 word suposition on this idea (give me the goods, and the bads, and a few possibilities on how it could work) just something small, but informative to let the majority of the public know about your Nifty idea.


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