D&D 5E I Love D&D Next, But ...

[mlund]

It's not that much effort at all. I've heard of a group of friends who share a single D&DI account.

That's already anticipated in the business model. Gaming tables have been sharing the same set of print books among themselves since the 70s. People have been making photo-copies for a long time too.

Unlimited push-button redistribution of copied files across the Internet is the scale you want to focus on inhibiting.

But let's say that system is in place, and let's say it somehow prevents people from sharing IDs and passwords (and the actual files).

It doesn't really need to do so. Sharing (as opposed to creating copies and distributing them) requires an element of trust. Just like someone can run off with your real books someone you give the ID and Password to can jack your account. That means you don't hand your stuff over to any random chumley on the 'Net with his hand out.

The pirates will extract each book (or just scan the physical copies), convert them to PDF, and upload them to torrent sites.

That's why you need a good lock-and-key software system and to rotate your encryption regularly. Yes, eventually someone breaks it and rips the PDF. If it takes a prolonged amount of time to do it then you drive the people who want immediate gratification towards legitimate channels on release. The same logic applies to how simul-casting streaming releases cuts into the demand for fan-sub anime and why late-coming video game cracks don't bite much into AAA title releases.

If you're a legitimate customer, you have to go to the WotC site, faff about with product IDs and such, give them money, and end up with a restrictive, proprietary, massively inconvenient product.

Restrictive and proprietary are non-issues as long as inconvenience is mitigated by good design - hence the platform agnostic angle. If you all you need to do is install a reliable application once and then it works, well that's not really a stretch from needing to download Acrobat Reader.

Beyond that if you want to buy a PDF from you've got to faff around on their web site to make a purchase, so that's pretty much a non-issue.

That's a start. It gives the customer a service he actually wants to use, rather than just devaluing the product.

Between having current errata and forcing significant lag time between legitimate product release and illegally cracked software release you'd could make the impact you wanted to. The other nice feature is that as Errata releases come out the app knows the right one to fetch immediately - no waiting for a crack and then wading through torrents clogged up with obsolete versions, low-quality versions, corrupted files, and malware.

- Marty Lund

 

[GX.Sigma]

Yes, eventually someone breaks it and rips the PDF. If it takes a prolonged amount of time to do it then you drive the people who want immediate gratification towards legitimate channels on release.

Sure, that's always been the case with everything. But that buys you, what, a few days before someone scans it? That's nothing.

I think we agree on a lot of points, but this encapsulates where we disagree:

Unlimited push-button redistribution of copied files across the Internet is the scale you want to focus on inhibiting.

I don't think you should focus on inhibiting anything. You should see pirate distribution as your competition, and strive to create a better product than your competition. Trying to design a product to restrict illegal distribution is futile at best.

 

[IronWolf]

Unlimited push-button redistribution of copied files across the Internet is the scale you want to focus on inhibiting.

GX.Sigma already addressed this point, but as long as a company focuses more on inhibiting there are going to be issues.

Toss a watermark on there and you are done. You've inhibited the casual file sharer and remained non-obtrusive and out of your customer's way. Paizo seems to have had great success with this. Rulebooks in PDF format? $10 a pop. People will pay that just to preview the material. Are Paizo books out there on pirate sites? Yep. But Paizo still have people buying PDFs and they have a lot of community support.

That's why you need a good lock-and-key software system and to rotate your encryption regularly. Yes, eventually someone breaks it and rips the PDF. If it takes a prolonged amount of time to do it then you drive the people who want immediate gratification towards legitimate channels on release.

Or spend more time and resources creating a quality product and less money into encryption systems that pirates are going to crack in very little time. Even the big name devices from Amazon and Apple get rooted in very little time. Both of those companies have many, many more resources to throw at securing their devices, yet people find a way around it.

RPG companies don't have the resources to effectively combat piracy. Watermark the PDF, call it a done deal and focus on making that quality product. Other folks are out there making money this way.

Restrictive and proprietary are non-issues as long as inconvenience is mitigated by good design - hence the platform agnostic angle. If you all you need to do is install a reliable application once and then it works, well that's not really a stretch from needing to download Acrobat Reader.

Except this platform needs built and tested. If you rely on PDFs you don't have to be one that builds and designs - Adobe incurs those costs. You just produce in a format that can be read and let someone else eat those costs.

Beyond that if you want to buy a PDF from you've got to faff around on their web site to make a purchase, so that's pretty much a non-issue.

Subscriptions minimize this of course. Get the email your PDF is available, hit the My Downloads link and all your PDFs are right there. But yeah, at some point you have to go to the source site to get the material. A good site makes that easy, but not a major issue.


Between having current errata and forcing significant lag time between legitimate product release and illegally cracked software release you'd could make the impact you wanted to. The other nice feature is that as Errata releases come out the app knows the right one to fetch immediately - no waiting for a crack and then wading through torrents clogged up with obsolete versions, low-quality versions, corrupted files, and malware.

- Marty Lund[/QUOTE]

 

[Riley]

If you're a legitimate customer, you have to go to the WotC site, faff about with product IDs and such, give them money, and end up with a restrictive, proprietary, massively inconvenient product....

...which inevitably goes ''poof'' in a few years, when the iPad or Nook or whatever becomes obsolete.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Toss a watermark on there and you are done. You've inhibited the casual file sharer and remained non-obtrusive and out of your customer's way.

Wait, what? How does that help?

Edit: To amend my statements on DRM:

You don't even have to create an experience that's better than pirating. All you really have to do is match it. Look at services like NetFlix, iTunes, and Steam. I could illegally download a movie, an album or a game--but I could buy it just as easily, and I'd rather do that than be a criminal. Of course, this depends on the product/service being reasonably priced--if WotC sold PDFs for $50 each, that wouldn't help at all.

 

[thewok]

Regarding the DRM issue: I'm all for protecting intellectual property. But, what I don't like is when, as mentioned above, the people who pay for a product are restricted in how they can enjoy it.

For example, look at DVDs. When I buy a movie now, I pop it in the player, and I then get to watch or fast-forward through trailers about movies I don't even care about. I can hit "Disc Menu," but I'm told that the action isn't available. I cannot immediately enjoy my movie. And then, once I am able to start the movie, I'm then presented with a warning, saying "Don't pirate this movie." I frigging bought it already!

The pirate can download the movie and watch it immediately, in full 1080p, 7.1 surround, Dolby DTS quality. He doesn't have to deal with the hassle; he can simply enjoy the experience.

As a paying customer, I should be able to watch a movie as soon as the player can load the data. At the very least, I should be presented with the menu and not 15 minutes of trailers of movies that I'm either not going to buy or have already planned on buying (or even have already bought). Locking out the menu function and then warning me about stealing the movie are both fine on the discs I get from the Redbox. I expect that. But I shouldn't be treated like a criminal when I've dropped my hard-earned cash to actually buy the thing.

It's the same with digital RPG materials. DRM is fine, but it should be non-intrusive, and offline readability is part of that. Purchasers should be able to access their materials at any time of day or night, rain or shine, wifi or no wifi.

 

[slobo777]

That's a start. It gives the customer a service he actually wants to use, rather than just devaluing the product. Still, I don't see how that would prevent people from sharing IDs and passwords.

I can share a book at the table, too. This just needs two angles:

1) Take into account with pricing/marketing I.e. no DRM $$$ signs in the eyes as they assume *all* players must use the service individually.

2) Monitor account use for sharing patterns. An account that gets logged into from 3 or 4 locations per day can be counted as legit. An account that gets logged in simultaneously from 10 locations has been shared. Make the numbers generous, but low enough that posting to a forum would get the account cancelled.

 

[Lwaxy]

They have no search feature.

It's called index. ))

 

[SeRiAlExPeRiMeNtS]

Every D&D book is in large torrents site. All content of D&D insider is on the internet, there is no DRM to prevent this, DRM will only hurt people how pay for the content.


To me is pdf or no buy, I read everything in my ipad nowadays.

 

[mlund]

If the expectation is that IP Security / DRM will eliminate all piracy then people have the wrong expectations. Arguments based around those ideas are pointless tangents. Pirating / bootlegging D&D books has been happening since the 70s. Likewise, the idea that each player is going to have their own D&DInsider account or whatever is a read herring. If an executive is doing math based on those premises he deserves to lose his job.

Combating losses due to piracy is about managing cost and value. The main threat of electronic piracy is that without DRM or value-add functionality it marries the full value of your electronic product with a cost that is approaching 0. That's a terrible ratio to compete with.

One part of the solution is adding value. Access to Errata, integration between purchases, supporting utilities, etc. - these are all things you can provide and update regularly. But without security there's nothing stopping people from stealing those features too.

Security is the crucial second part. Even just starting with passwords and accounts to download things like initial purchases and updates. Every update can eventually be cracked or ripped and redistributed, but if it takes significantly longer to wait around for someone to hack the DRM and then obtain the pirated copy of what you want then the opportunity cost of pirating something no longer approaches 0. Now you have a ratio you can compete with.

The trick is just making sure the impediments to pirates don't come at the cost of seriously inconveniencing the paying customer by doing silly things like forcing them to only use iOS products, MSWindows, or only being able to access their information while connected to the Internet.

Sure, that's always been the case with everything. But that buys you, what, a few days before someone scans it? That's nothing.

Early (or even prior to release) high-quality pirated documents of game books are almost never scans. They are usually production PDFs that are leaked.

If you can't download a top-quality copy of a game book during the week of its release that's huge. Hobby-gaming book releases from well-established lines do the bulk of their living or dying by way of their initial release sales (include pre-orders). It's the same issue with simul-cast anime streaming and whatnot. When fan-subs are lagging the company release by a week or more they are practical obsolete. Immediate gratification is a HUGE driver of initial full-retail market sales of video games, anime, and gaming books.

I mean, you could basically get the product for free by borrowing your friend's release-day analog copy and scanning it yourself, right? Pretty much nobody does this. The opportunity cost is way too high compared to casual point-and-click piracy.

which inevitably goes ''poof'' in a few years, when the iPad or Nook or whatever becomes obsolete

That's the reason why you can't be married to a platform. The reader software needs to be platform agnostic.

- Marty Lund