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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jester47" data-source="post: 1969976" data-attributes="member: 2238">It is effective, you just have to know how to use the technology in an effective way.Tracking down pirates of RPGs is not an effective tactic.  The permanence of the watermark is largely a function of how it is implemented.  With strong crypto embedded not on the pages of the PDF but as a digital signature distributed throughout and indeed as part of the document itself (that is to say that the removal of the signature removes parts of the doc) each copy is unique.  What this does is it creates a papertrail.  With this information a producer of the PDF can track the number of pirated copies more easily.  Once he has this number then he can protect his bottom line by adjusting prices to compensate for the piracy.  The US mint uses watermarks in this way.  They don't do it to track counterfitters (well they do but that is somewhat secondary) they do it to track how much the counterfitters put into the system and then adjust the system to compensate.  It helps them to tell the difference between funny money and the real stuff.  Then they know how much funny money and real money to pull to keep the system stable.  On second teir piracy this is no good.  But it does slow the first teir pirates down long enough to protect the profit margins as most of the sales and "aquisitions" are in the first month or so of the products release.  This is why at WotC the first two weeks are crucial.  According to Sean K. Reynolds the sales in the first two weeks determine the success of the line.  If a PDF publisher can protect that sales spike, then hey, all the better for them. Aaron.</blockquote>

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