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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 1823203" data-attributes="member: 151">Personally, I think skinnydwarf summarized some of the most relevant information, though I certainly am receptive to philreed's point.Now, clueless conniving kazaa theives notwithstanding (and let's be honest, that guy probably felt the same way about any product, not just phil's PDFs, and certainly not just the OGC parts), I think philreed's analysis is overly generous to the number of lost sales that WotC or Green Ronin would experience versus perhaps a PDF-only release.First off, print publishing has not been displaced by PDFs.  Most people I know consider PDFs to be a 'nice-to-have', but not a replacement for a published work.  I can't take a PDF on the train to work or a dozen other places where a computer is problematic.  Further, the layout of a printed work is both relevant and useful to me, something an OGC reprint won't offer.  Take a good look at Unearthed Arcana or any WotC work, really.  It's visually appealing and has lots of quality artwork...something an OGC releasal isn't likely to offer.  It's also from WotC, which gives it a veneer of authenticity that, say Malhavoc, isn't going to have.  I think that the core issue, "is it OK to distribute others' OGC for free?" suffers from vague wordage.  Clearly, it's legal.  The issue of lost sales seems, to me, an empty argument.  The OGC wasn't created to develop intellectual freedom, or even as a favor to the 3rd party publishers.  It wasn't meant to help them, per se, so much as encourage them to create content for D&D, to help sell WotC's product.  It was a clever idea that benefits players, 3rd party publishers and most importantly, WotC.  It's no accident that the one company that produced virtually no OGC material for years was WotC itself.  WotC wants people to provide for them....that's part of the business model.  Then they can pick and choose and bring the bright ideas back in house...for no money. OGC has tons of benefits that don't boil down to cold hard cash, of course, and I don't mean to imply that Ryan Dancey and WotC created it without considering the ways that it would benefit the hobby.  In point of fact, I think they approached it from that angle, looking for a way to make a business model around it.  But the whole idea of the OGC is to allow for material to be picked at, by WotC if no one else.  Note that Unearthed Arcana has material yanked directly from Green Ronin and others, for example.  That's the payoff, right there.</blockquote>

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