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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Setanta" data-source="post: 1494764" data-attributes="member: 2183">@Bendris Noulg I see the distinction; point taken.  I totally agree with you. As I've said, I don't really think that someone posting UA on the Internet would actually hurt WotC's sales. I totally understand my argument is thin- I'm speculating on possible perceptions that people I don't know might have. That's thin- no doubt. However, I think it makes sense, and it's what I believe.  A great question. I remember a while back someone wanted to do something like d20exchange, and lots of publishers actually joined the thread and stated displeasure at the thought. People asked them how they felt about other publishers publishing their works, and they all said that was fine with them. So what's the difference? They said that if they publish something, and another publisher decides to reprint it in its entirety, by the time it hits store shelves the original product wouldn't be selling much anyway, so who cares? However, if a product is released, and someone immediately posted it on the web, some publishers felt that might/would hurt their sales. So, we know that most books sell the vast majority of copies they're going to sell in the first three months (many publishers have said things like that). However, some products have longer life spans, like maybe campaign settings that are well supported. Six months certainly seems fair, maybe even three months, with the somewhat longer lasting campaign settings being protected by the fact that they generally have a greater amount of IP than a common crunch book. Would publishers think three or six months is fair? Who knows, but I don't remember ever reading about one that had a complaint about the d20exchange's 6 month policy.  Ah, got it. I did indeed miss your point. You posted a long example of how you think publishers could keep a bit more control of how their stuff is used. I think the problem with it is that gamers often don't like to buy one product and find they need another to use it, especially if it's from a another publisher. I've seen lots of people complain about Necromancer putting creatures from Tome of Horrors in their adventures without full stat blocks, and that's all one publisher (BTW, NG has only done this a couple times at most- I certainly don't think it's a big deal, but of course I have ToH).  Strangely it does here too if a police officer sees it. Of course, that would involve them not doing something more important, like going after real crime.  As previously stated, I understand your motivation. I'm setting up a campaign website, and I'd love to put all house rules on there. I'm running it using a third party campaign setting, and I'd love to put PI stuff on my website as well so that players don't have to buy a $35 book. I'm not going to do that, but the point is, I understand why you want this. If people post all of UA on their personal sites for their players' use, would WotC even know? If they don't know, they wouldn't find it threatening to their sales, which is what I'm concerned about. If you were to e-mail breakdaddy and ask him to send you the OCR'd text, WotC would never know, unless you cc them. Again, my only concern here is that WotC is going to think making things OGC hurts their sales. WotC would be aware of UA being posted at EN World, which it seemed like the final outcome of this thread at the beginning (maybe not officially, but if it was linked in an obvious enough place, there's not a huge difference).  Truly. No other publisher has near the marketing budget, distribution, or market penetration of WotC. If D&D stuff stopped being sold at WalMart, Border, Barnes and Noble, etc., that would hurt, as fewer players would have access to even basic stuff (barring the Internet, which some people still don't use for whatever reason, plus they'd be buying sight unseen, which is a bummer). Sure, White Wolf gets onto shelves in those stores, but does any other company (I live in LA, so I don't have a Walmart anywhere nearby, so if they do, I wouldn't know)?</blockquote>

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