PDFS--Of the WotC Court Case

[Mark Hope]

The law and morality are not always in perfect alignment. But we've probably gone a bit off-topic here.

Not always, no. But I don't think that N0Man represents a corner-case here.

And here we see why it's so hard to get realistic data on what the effects of copyright violation actually are.

Oh well, -- N

I don't want to be part of a community that allows self-confessed thieves to go unchallenged for the sake of interesting discussion. Enworld is the poorer for it.

(It may well also be poorer for my unwillingess to keep my big mouth shut on this matter, but I am willing to wear the consequences if it comes to that.)

 

[Mort_Q]

Hmmm...

Scribd is new to me. Just did a search on D&D... and lots of 3.5 stuff came up. How annoying.

 

[Nifft]

I don't want to be part of a community that allows self-confessed thieves to go unchallenged for the sake of interesting discussion. Enworld is the poorer for it.

(It may well also be poorer for my unwillingess to keep my big mouth shut on this matter, but I am willing to wear the consequences if it comes to that.)

It's not your place to shut down any discussion. We have moderators for that. If you don't like a post, report it.

Insulting people is unacceptable. Full stop.

The mods here do a good job. Don't make extra work by being ban-worthy.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Mark Hope]

It's not your place to shut down any discussion. We have moderators for that. If you don't like a post, report it.

Insulting people is unacceptable. Full stop.

The mods here do a good job. Don't make extra work by being ban-worthy.

Cheers, -- N

Except I'm not shutting down discussion, am I? Nor do I have any problems with N0Man's post in and of itself. I'm offering fair criticism of his self-confessed theft. Furthermore, it is not insulting to call a thief a thief, especially when he has admitted to being one.

I completely agree with you, by the way, that the mods here do a fantastic job. I just don't see that this is wholly a matter for the mods. If a member of this community brags about their piracy, there is nothing wrong with offering criticism of that. At least, that's my take on it. If that gets me banned, so be it.

 

[Dannager]

Furthermore, it is not insulting to call a thief a thief, especially when he has admitted to being one.

He hasn't admitted to theft. He's admitted to taking advantage of copyright infringement through digital piracy, but equating that with theft is incorrect.

Thieves engage in theft. Copyright infringement is not theft.

 

[Mark Hope]

He hasn't admitted to theft. He's admitted to taking advantage of copyright infringement through digital piracy, but equating that with theft is incorrect.

Thieves engage in theft. Copyright infringement is not theft.

He took something that didn't belong to him without paying for it and without the owner's permission. That is stealing. Simple as that.

 

[RefinedBean]

He took something that didn't belong to him without paying for it and without the owner's permission. That is stealing. Simple as that.

Uh, no. The guy engaged in piracy. Which is different from theft.

If he had gone to a store and stolen a physical copy, that would be theft.

But since WotC/distributors still have their physical copies of their books, as well as access to digital copies, he logically couldn't have "stolen" from them, since "stealing" implies loss of a physical (or quantifiable) product.

 

[N0Man]

He took something that didn't belong to him without paying for it and without the owner's permission. That is stealing. Simple as that.

I have almost all of the 4E books in harcopy already, save for maybe a mere 2 or 3. I have bought at least one copy of every single Dungeon Tile Set made so far except the very newest set, multiple copies of some and paying the stupid price-gouging price on one set. I am also a DDI subscriber.

I am not a thief that is ripping off WotC, I'm a loyal customer.

If I had personally scanned and OCR'd the books I bought, for my own personal use to put on a thumb drive so that I could carry them with me for a game without taking all my actual books wouldn't I be within my rights? The only difference between that and what I have done is that I'm not the one that scanned them. I did, however buy them.

I only brought up the entire subject to discuss the subject of piracy in general and some of the flawed assumptions. I didn't do it to praise piracy, or even to say that to pirate and NOT buy materials was ok. Furthermore, I most certainly did not do so to be attacked by some overzealous and overly judgmental poster.

I tried being reasonable and polite, but I'm am quite tired of the personal attacks, of you calling me a thief and claiming that I didn't pay for my materials. I have paid for these books and more.

 

[Mark Hope]

Uh, no. The guy engaged in piracy. Which is different from theft.

If he had gone to a store and stolen a physical copy, that would be theft.

But since WotC/distributors still have their physical copies of their books, as well as access to digital copies, he logically couldn't have "stolen" from them, since "stealing" implies loss of a physical (or quantifiable) product.

Stealing is taking something that you should not be taking, plain and simple. Whether lawyers choose to differentiate between digital piracy and theft as legal terms is neither here nor there. N0Man took things he should not have taken. If you would rather N0Man be labelled a pirate than a thief, that's fine by me. Either way, it's pretty scummy behaviour and distasteful of him to come here and crow about how it's actually OK.

 

[Mark Hope]

N0Man, so sorry if you're tired of being criticised for your behaviour. Maybe you shouldn't have broken the law and then tried to say that it's OK for you to have done so, eh? What you did was wrong. Wear it.