Piracy of "The Valley of Frozen Tears"

[mroberon1972]

Well, I knew it had to happen...

A currently nameless individual has pirated "The Valley of Frozen Tears" and slapped it onto the newsgroups...

Wonderful....

I am currently trying to decide if the fun of tracking down the pirate and legally breaking him in half outweighs the irritation of the security tracking needed to find him, his address, and the legal cost of suing him...

Hmnnn... Decisions, decisions... Be a vinditive cruel monster or mark it up to "The cost of doing business"...

I am now contacting the e-mail providor, to see if this will be worthwhile...

 

[Ghostwind]

To be perfectly honest, there is very little you can do in the big picture to stop piracy. Other publishers who are much larger have researched it and most have come to the same conclusion. There is nothing you can do at the present time to prevent piracy. However, there is also no statistical evidence proving either way that piracy is damaging or beneficial to the RPG industry. You can try to stop the individuals, but I think you will find that it will slowly soak up more of your energy and time than it's worth.

Unfortunately, mark it up to the cost of doing business and focus on your next product. Welcome to the realm of publishing...

 

[Crothian]

I've heard some people just ask that the book be taken down for a month and have had some success with that. Others place add a page of info on other products, webpage, and everything they can think of for when it gets pirated at least they have self advertising.

 

[philreed]

Well, I knew it had to happen...

A currently nameless individual has pirated "The Valley of Frozen Tears" and slapped it onto the newsgroups...

And now you can call yourself a publisher.

Believe me, I feel for you. Within a few weeks of releasing 101 Spellbooks it was being pirated and these days I just expect that anything I release will be pirated. I try to contact anyone I see giving away my PDFs but there comes a point when you're overwhelmed.

I do wish GAMA or the GPA had an anti-piracy group that at least tried to combat this sort of thing.

 

[mroberon1972]

Perhaps we should make one?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Some friends of mine who have formed a folk music group had their first CD pirated before it was even published... by the person they hired to burn the CDs for them.

I suspect that yes, it does hurt the publishers at least a small amount.

The Auld Grump

 

[Phineas Crow]

piracy sucks, but in today's technological era its impossible to stop...

Take a look at the multi-million dollar music industry, if they can't stop people from pirating their products, I doubt small time RPG companies will be able to.

 

[Eosin the Red]

Let it go.

Ultimately you will just make yourslf look bad by invoking the law. Sure, it sucks but it is part and parcel to the business.

 

[mroberon1972]

Let it go.

Ultimately you will just make yourslf look bad by invoking the law. Sure, it sucks but it is part and parcel to the business.

Do you actually believe that? Are you saying when wal-mart detains another shoplifter and has him carted away for theft, they are the bad guys?

This guy just put all of wal-marts merchandise in the parking lot with a sign that says: "Take this! It's free..."

I cannot subscribe to that thought pattern. Sorry.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Tracking down the pirate and beating him to death has a certain appeal to it, yes? But vigilante-ism is also illegal.

I would probably file a complaint with his ISP and leave it at that. Let the authorities handle it (or not). And meanwhile, call your congressman and complain. Something does need to be done about this culture of wanton theft that we live in.