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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greatwyrm" data-source="post: 1548710" data-attributes="member: 479">Well, it's a good thing you're not a lawyer.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />   I'm not either, but let me share some info I picked up in a Business Law class.Surprisingly, the first thing they taught us in Business Law was how the criminal law system works.  Now, what does that tell you?  Anyway, intent rarely matters in a criminal case, unless you're talking about stuff like hate crimes or the difference between murder and manslaughter.  If you have somebody else's stuff in your posession, and you didn't pay for it or receive it as a gift, it's stolen property.  It really is that simple.Second, you do not have to show any loss of revenue to make a civil case for infringement of intellectual property stick.  If I go around painting dozens of murals of Mickey Mouse absolutely free  for people, Disney's lawyers will come smack me around (and the judge would hold me while they hit me).  They own the rights to Mickey and I don't.While both of these points are pretty solid, it still doesn't change my opinion that it's just not worth it to pursue a case like this.  As good as I'm sure the products that Ancient Awakenings produces are, I'll bet they're still a small operation selling pdfs.  If you just want to sit down with a lawyer who works with copyrights and IP, you'll be lucky if you get a full hour for $150.  That's before any paperwork is filed, before a subpoena is issued, and before you see a judge.  Maybe you can get the lawyer to throw in an angry letter to the guy for free, but you're probably looking at another 50 - 100 bucks.  Two hundred dollars and likely little or no resolution to the problem.Compare that to the break-even point for a pdf project.  Unless you're Monte Cook, you're probably not drawing enough sales to cover an expense like that.  I agree that it stinks, but that's just how it adds up.  It will take someone with money to burn, like Microsoft or Adobe, to get real protections and real penalties for pirates.  Once something like that happens, this conversation will go a lot differently.  Unfortunately, this just isn't a battle a little guy can afford to wage.</blockquote>

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