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Message: <blockquote data-quote="N0Man" data-source="post: 4913894" data-attributes="member: 64066">Let me be upfront and say that I'm not here to defend piracy as an absolute. It certainly can cause damage, and I think that a measure of concern over it is valid, but I think a lot of it is an overreaction.I am going to confess that I have pirated copies of almost every 4E book in PDF format.  I also want to make the claim, that I have not caused any loss of money, at all, from WotC.How is this possible?Simple.  First, I downloaded books to evaluate them.  Yes, it was illegal, but my purpose of doing so was basically to browse through the book to evaluate the book before I bought them (sometimes before they were even in my local stores).  Technically, I could have drove across town, wasted time and gas, and done the same thing in the store.  In the end though, WotC has been making books for 4E that I've been pleased with, so I end up buying them anyway.  Since I purchased them, in the end there was no victim, except maybe the local gas station, who didn't get my business.Also, some of the downloads were after I bought a hardcopy, and I wanted to be able to quickly search through them at the game table (through the miracle of "Find").  Many things are on DDI, but not all of them, so a digital can be useful in keeping the speed of a game going (especially given the poor quality of the Index of many of the books).Finally, I also have file versions of many Dungeon Tiles sets.  I also have purchased many from stores.  The reason for this is that may sets were underproduced, time-limited and are hard or impossible to find.  So yes, I've committed piracy here, but I've also sent *numerous* e-mails, and have made multiple pleas on both these boards and on the Gleemax boards for WotC to re-release or reprint some of these sets, especially those they commonly reference in current materials.My point is that not everyone who has pirated copies of materials is making the company lose money.  I've bought books after seeing them pirated, and I've pirated copies once I bought them, and I've pirated materials that I've tried to buy in stores but have been unable to, and have digital access to the majority of the content anyway as a subscriber to DDI, so even more money from me to WotC.So, though I've pirated hundreds of dollars in materials, I have not caused WotC any loss at all.I am not going to pretend to represent the majority of people who have pirated these books, but merely pointing out that I fall into at least one of the scenarios that the claims of loss are completely off the mark.I would go as far as to say that the vast majority of people who pirate the materials fall into the following categories:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">People who have or will purchase the materials anyway.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">People who would not purchase the materials anyway, even if it weren't available illegally.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">People who pirate it *only* because it's free, but have little to no use from the product, and wouldn't even have interest in it if it weren't available illegally.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">People who would like to buy the materials, but really can't afford to... (but they often will try to at a later time)</li> </ul>If I had to hazard a guess, based on my personal experience from myself and the many other people who I've known who've commited in some form of piracy, I would say that the number of pirates out there that pirate a product instead of buying, when they were willing and able to buy it if piracy wasn't an option, is maybe 10% of the pirates.Anyway, I'm not trying to say piracy is right, but it often doesn't hurt nearly as much as some think.</blockquote>

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