Just remembered about the leaks during 4e.

[Jan van Leyden]

I remember comments about PDFs of assorted products being placed on newsgroups and file-sharing sites and how they were going after the people who put them there because the PDFs were individually keyed so they could tell who had leaked what.

But these were PDFs sold back when it was possible. Some guys bought the stuff (or acquired them from someone who'd but them) and put them on the net.

The leaked PDFs mention in the OP were a different matter; they weren't so easy to track down.

 

[Henry]

I mean, I will say this, or rather scream it "I AIN'T NEVER GOING BACK!" (please ignore the grammatical curiosity of this phrase), with regards to carrying around 3+ heavy hardback books just to have the complete rules on hand.

Small anecdote: I was prepping a new PC for a Pathfinder game, when I noticed my Ipad was almost out of power - so I plugged it up, hunted for my books, and started reading.

About an hour later of rifling through just four hardbacks, I was reminded quickly why I went to an Ipad and PDFs two years ago and never looked back. If the new D&D doesn't offer an offline electronic option, It'll be a sure sign I never go past the core set as a player or DM.

 

[Henry]

But these were PDFs sold back when it was possible. Some guys bought the stuff (or acquired them from someone who'd but them) and put them on the net.

The leaked PDFs mention in the OP were a different matter; they weren't so easy to track down.

Quite funny how they nailed the PH2 leakers too - steganography of the transaction IDs in digital images embedded in the PDF. the old schooler pirates used to cut up physical books and OCR 'em, making it a little more difficult to track. It was for that reason the pirates were never able to be actually stopped, and the Apple plan of "join 'em if you can't beat 'em" always made a lot more sense.