Psion said:
Due respect, Joe, I don't think that is likely to happen. It seems their primary business model is to sell products by companies that won't live without some guarantee that their work won't be copied.
Yeah, I'm rather pessimistic about that as well.
What I'm hoping is that if enough people show those publishers that DRM doesn't give them any guarantees that their work won't be copied and that it actually reduces sales compared what they would be without DRM, some of the publishers may become more comfortable with the uncomfortable fact that, although they own the copyright, they never own the copies.
When 300+ people say they're not going to buy your product and the average sales for the products are rarely higher than 500, you'd
better be paying attention.
The fact that RPGDT changed their policy for Malhavoc at least shows that Malhavoc was able to show them the business facts about how easing up on the cut-n-paste restrictions is probably a step in the more-profitable direction.
The way I view it is this way: if a company's going to put out electronic versions of their product, they should do it in ways that maximize profit considering their e-sales, their channel sales, their convention sales... all their sales.
But, even with all that, I'm afraid you're right. One thing I do know is that nothing's ever changed when people stopped trying to change it. Be that through talking, posting, boycotts or whatever. In this case, the deciding factor probably isn't one of those things, it'll be fiscal, I imagine. But the fiscal decisions are often tied closely to the opinions of the people
who are your target sales demographic.
I want RPGDT to succeed. I don't think there'd
even be a question of that success if the files were open and completely accessible to those who paid hardcash to get them.
joe b.
