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How does pulling old edition pdfs benefit WotC?
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<blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 4753139" data-attributes="member: 2209"><p>I'm not seeing how pulling old edition pdfs benefits WotC.</p><p></p><p>From the interviews Leeds said it was done because of increases in piracy within hours of pdf releases and for a strategic business purpose.</p><p></p><p>Piracy obviously hurts WotC if it leads to lost sales.</p><p></p><p>The entire WotC then current catalog of 3e books were pirated before WotC ever made pdfs for sale and there is no reason to expect 4e books won't be similarly scanned and pirated now that 4e pdfs are no longer available. So the driver here is only changing the patterns based off of those who buy pdfs legally.</p><p></p><p>1 I can see release day pdfs mean quickly pirated pdfs from legally bought ones going up and thinking that some who pirate those legally bought pdfs and don't also buy the book would instead preorder the physical book or buy it on day one from a store for instant gratification and rules access purposes. Those hypothetical purchases of physical books which would be but are not being made would benefit WotC.</p><p></p><p>This would seem to be solved by releasing pdfs a month or two after physical release but it is at least a possible rational reason to not release pdfs on the book release day.</p><p></p><p>2 I can also see thinking that some who own pdfs will not buy the hardcovers but would if there were no legal pdf available. To me this seems numerically improbable to lead to a conclusion that removing sale of pdfs entirely will be to WotC's advantage as it is weighed against the profits from those who buy the pdfs in addition to the hardcopy books and those who will only buy the pdfs, but I can see this as a possibility in reasoning.</p><p></p><p>I find these lines of reasoning possible, but those rationales would still only apply to books that are in print.</p><p></p><p>How does pulling 3e and older edition pdfs benefit WotC?</p><p></p><p>I feel like there is a big chunk missing here.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Voadam, post: 4753139, member: 2209"] I'm not seeing how pulling old edition pdfs benefits WotC. From the interviews Leeds said it was done because of increases in piracy within hours of pdf releases and for a strategic business purpose. Piracy obviously hurts WotC if it leads to lost sales. The entire WotC then current catalog of 3e books were pirated before WotC ever made pdfs for sale and there is no reason to expect 4e books won't be similarly scanned and pirated now that 4e pdfs are no longer available. So the driver here is only changing the patterns based off of those who buy pdfs legally. 1 I can see release day pdfs mean quickly pirated pdfs from legally bought ones going up and thinking that some who pirate those legally bought pdfs and don't also buy the book would instead preorder the physical book or buy it on day one from a store for instant gratification and rules access purposes. Those hypothetical purchases of physical books which would be but are not being made would benefit WotC. This would seem to be solved by releasing pdfs a month or two after physical release but it is at least a possible rational reason to not release pdfs on the book release day. 2 I can also see thinking that some who own pdfs will not buy the hardcovers but would if there were no legal pdf available. To me this seems numerically improbable to lead to a conclusion that removing sale of pdfs entirely will be to WotC's advantage as it is weighed against the profits from those who buy the pdfs in addition to the hardcopy books and those who will only buy the pdfs, but I can see this as a possibility in reasoning. I find these lines of reasoning possible, but those rationales would still only apply to books that are in print. How does pulling 3e and older edition pdfs benefit WotC? I feel like there is a big chunk missing here. [/QUOTE]
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