D&D 4E Posssibility of 4E pdf's being leaked?

[Kwalish Kid]

Amazingly, there seems to be no 4E content out there except for scanned copies of Races and Classes. (And no, I'm not going to share my research methodology on this one with you.) However, there are ways to discourage scanning and distribution for a small print-run (like playtest documents) that are not economically feasible for a larger print-run. Additionally, there are social and psychological incentives for those within playtests to maintain confidentiality.

4E may be one of the last big RPG projects done by a company the size of WotC. Electronic distribution is just too easy and it is too easy to overcome controls on that distribution. If the US moves to a new model for artist compensation, then WotC may not be able to gain the revenue from copyright in the same way that they did in the past. Now they may be able to thrive under a new system, but I suspect that fan-based projects done over the internet will fare far better under any alternative economic scheme for rewarding artist contribution.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I suspect that fan-based projects done over the internet will fare far better under any alternative economic scheme for rewarding artist contribution.

Oh? Dude, the fan-based projects I've all been involved with have paid me with a few attaboy posts and cost me tons of time. I get the reward of a job well done, and that's honestly why I love doing stuff in this hobby.

Unless we find a better means of paying for the few companies that pay cash for our efforts to create, then I'm not personally in favor of a new artists compensation scheme.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

Oh? Dude, the fan-based projects I've all been involved with have paid me with a few attaboy posts and cost me tons of time. I get the reward of a job well done, and that's honestly why I love doing stuff in this hobby.

You'll note that I said "alternative economic scheme"?

Unless we find a better means of paying for the few companies that pay cash for our efforts to create, then I'm not personally in favor of a new artists compensation scheme.

You might like to do some research. Here's a short analysis of one alternative copyright scheme: "The Artistic Freedom Voucher: Internet Age Alternative to Copyrights" http://www.cepr.net/content/view/161

 

[jgbrowning]

Firstly, there won't be any PDF documents. We would have to make them from the physical documents received. From physical documents designed not to be able to be photocopied. Every document is going to be uniquely identifiable and I'd imagine that would be done by not only putting the name of the owner on the pages but also by how phrases are arraigned allowing leak tracing. In otherwords, I think there's a zero chance of a leak. But not because of the prevention methods, but because we respect WotC's wishes in regards to their property.

And we'll also have paid $5,000 to get that preview advantage so a little bit of self interest is involved as well. It would be much more likely for a play tester to leak than a publisher, IMO.

joe b.

 

[mach1.9pants]

And we'll also have paid $5,000 to get that preview advantage so a little bit of self interest is involved as well. It would be much more likely for a play tester to leak than a publisher, IMO.
joe b.

Is that an announcement of an intention to shell out 5K by ERP?

 

[JohnRTroy]

If the US moves to a new model for artist compensation, then WotC may not be able to gain the revenue from copyright in the same way that they did in the past.

Honestly, every time I hear people talking about doing away with copyright and coming up with "alternative models", I keep thinking of the 60's hippies who said we'd all live in communes and take LSD regularly, and that it was a "revolution" that the US would soon adapt. That never ended up happening.

I think people are starting to see the downside of turning writing into a commodity rather than a product. We're starting to see that people are too cheap to pay when you do a "pay what you think is fair" for record downloads. I think 4e's OGL revision shows this trend.

What will probably end up happening is some content providers will go out of business, and those "alternative providers" will end up finding out that once they are out of high school and college, they won't be able to devote time to working on their hobby. You'll probably see attitudes change once this starts happening.

 

[Voss]

If the publisher leaked something, they'd never print anything again. Who would work with them after an obvious breach of trust, not to mention the inevitable lawsuit, fines and witch-hunt within the company to see who gets fired.

Leaked PDFs happen with Games Workshop pretty regularly. Whatever 'fallout' occurs doesn't prevent the next pdf from leaking.

 

[Piratecat]

As Joe said, publisher documents won't be distributed as pdfs. I wouldn't be surprised if playtesters got physical, identifiable copies as well.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

As Joe said, publisher documents won't be distributed as pdfs. I wouldn't be surprised if playtesters got physical, identifiable copies as well.

What's to stop them from transcribing those physical copies into an anonymous .txt file if they were inclined to do so?

 

[JohnRTroy]

What's to stop them from transcribing those physical copies into an anonymous .txt file if they were inclined to do so?

Having good strong morals, a sense of ethics, a conscience, understanding the privilege it is to be a playtester and that it can spoil things for the others, the very fact that transcribing takes a lot of time and effort, and just being a good guy in general.