Product Identity & Formatting

[hudarklord]

Besides, even if somebody DID do that, they wouldn't get very far. None of the e-stores would touch it. None of the news sites would hype it (certainly I wouldn't). They wouldn't affect your sales one iota.

Really, don't worry about it.

A great answer. Thanks.

Lee

 

[jmucchiello]

Really, don't worry about it.

A great answer. Thanks.

That's what I've been trying to say.

If you release 100% OGC, what stops someone from pulling the file into a distiller, ripping out your artwork and borders and stuff? Nothing. So your senario of copying my PDF and sell it for $3 less is still viable, it just takes a few more minutes of work your way. The reason most of us don't worry about that is because RPGNow most likely would not host the second PDF.

 

[hudarklord]

A great answer. Thanks.

That's what I've been trying to say.

If you release 100% OGC, what stops someone from pulling the file into a distiller, ripping out your artwork and borders and stuff? Nothing. So your senario of copying my PDF and sell it for $3 less is still viable, it just takes a few more minutes of work your way. [/QUOTE]

Thus the reason I've considered extracting the text as unformatted ASCII and then locking down the PDF itself with a password. That way the user has all the information he needs to port my own OGC for his personal use or for inclusion in other publications.

The reason most of us don't worry about that is because RPGNow most likely would not host the second PDF.

As Morrus already commented on this, this was a piece of data that I did not have, and which may have softened most of my concerns.

 

[jgbrowning]

We've taken a different approach. We've made everything OGC, even the flavor bits. We believe that "If someone's gonna rip you off, they're gonna rip you off." This does mean that if someone wants they could simply copy the entirety of our book and sell it for $5 instead of $10. So far no one has, and I have faith in people using this new medium not to.

And if they do, well shame on them. Honestly, I'd have no recourse against them even if I did IP my stuff. I simply don't have the desire to spend the amount of money needed for legal fees to support my rights. I could, but then I'd loose all my already slim profits.

joe b.

 

[jmucchiello]

Thus the reason I've considered extracting the text as unformatted ASCII and then locking down the PDF itself with a password. That way the user has all the information he needs to port my own OGC for his personal use or for inclusion in other publications.

But that is very inconvenient to the customer. I'm looking at the screen and want these three paragraphs. I have to open the ASCII document, somehow find those three paragraphs in a sea of text, and copy them. Very annoying.

Never forget this poll .

 

[Mark]

But that is very inconvenient to the customer. I'm looking at the screen and want these three paragraphs. I have to open the ASCII document, somehow find those three paragraphs in a sea of text, and copy them. Very annoying.

Sounds like the SRD to me...

I'm not so sure that the vast majority of people cut and paste a whole lot. I know some do, and it is true that method might be a bit inconvenient in some ways, but in others it sounds more convenient. Unless I am misunderstanding what is being proposed. *shrug*

 

[rpghost]

If you want, not to be agressive, but as a thought exercise, finish your latest PDF project. Make sure it has no artwork in it. Open up 100% of the content as OGC. I can 24 hours later come up with a new title page and undercut your price by 3 dollars and sell EXACTLY the same product, killing your sales and making free profit for little more than an hour of work.

Accept that I wouldn't let that happen and RPGNow represents about 75% of all indie PDF sales on the internet right now.

Not that I want to be the police, but we do take down product that is not in compliance or obviously crap like this.

James
http://www.RPGNow.com

 

[hudarklord]

Accept that I wouldn't let that happen and RPGNow represents about 75% of all indie PDF sales on the internet right now.

Not that I want to be the police, but we do take down product that is not in compliance or obviously crap like this.

James
http://www.RPGNow.com

As I've said before, since people have mentioned that you police matters like this and it was my primary concern, then my concerns are now much more limited. Thanks for the reply.

Cheers,
Lee Valentine

PS Kudos on your increasing sales trends -- I saw a sales chart a little while ago and it looked promising.

 

[jmucchiello]

Sounds like the SRD to me...

I'm not so sure that the vast majority of people cut and paste a whole lot. I know some do, and it is true that method might be a bit inconvenient in some ways, but in others it sounds more convenient. Unless I am misunderstanding what is being proposed. *shrug*

How could it be more convenient to be looking right at what you want to copy in the PDF and then having to find it again in another file so you can do the copy? About the only thing that might be more convenient is copying a table.

 

[Nellisir]

I'm still on the consumer side of the board, not publisher, but I don't see legal reprintings of OGC as a (current) problem. I'm not aware of any competing versions of the same product, and I wouldn't support a company that engages in such practices. I'd assume that the title and credits are not OGC -- assuming those pages are included in the main document, that alone prevents a casual copyist from simply reposting the document to RPGNow. Once you get into having to strip off the title & credits page, it's not a big leap to simply grab all the text, create a new document, and send it along to RPGNow (who will send it right back with a big no thank you anyways).

As you've noted, you aren't going to stop (or even slow down) the pirate, and you aren't going to defer the guy handing out a few copies to his gaming group -- he's not looking for profit, he's not posting them on the internet, and he's not worried about legality. Morality, maybe, but not legality.

Frankly, if I were to do something like this, I'd pick on the big sellers. Librum Equalus anyone?

On other related topics...I'd include border art, just because it looks pretty. B&w, pen & ink style, some knotwork or something. Nothing heavy.

As far as culling OGC into a separate document -- I think it's a good thing. It removes all question of OGC, and rtf is simple to deal with. I read the product for use, but when cutting out OGC, I'd always look to a txt or rtf version first.

Cheers
Nell.