Publishers, Piracy, and You

[Greatwyrm]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5211833856&

I've seen a lot of these coming up on ebay lately and it's been discussed recently on the WotC boards. Basically, some guy selling one or more books on pdf/CD, illegally. To name a few, this includes Necromancer, Malhavoc, WotC, Bastion, Sword & Sorcery, AEG, and Mongoose products.

Do publishers keep an eye on ebay for stuff like this? Do you care? If you do, who should we contact at your companies to report these? If any of you contact ebay, I know they'll take this down.

 

[philreed]

I try to but it's a full-time job just policing ebay. And ebay honestly doesn't care.

 

[Wystan]

In the sellers defense, he looks to be selling for the first time and might actually be on the up and up.

Edit:

And by 'On the up and up' I mean - Actually getting out of the RPG scene and no longer keeping any copies of the items he is giving with the 3.0 books.

 

[Man-thing]

Do publishers keep an eye on ebay for stuff like this? Do you care? If you do, who should we contact at your companies to report these? If any of you contact ebay, I know they'll take this down.

I don't think publishers have the time to track this sort of things. Many don't even have time to patrol their own boards. If you want to warn Mongoose about this I would suggest:

msprange@mongoosepublishing.com

 

[philreed]

In the sellers defense, he looks to be selling for the first time and might actually be on the up and up.

How? I don't think all of those products are (legally) available in PDF. And I didn't give him permission to sell copies of my PDFs -- not even the free ones.

 

[Wystan]

I just noticed the Items that are not PDF available. How he got them is his business, but selling the books with them as a bonus is illegal. I just sent him a polite questioning e-mail.

Edit: I will say however that if they were all items that were normally available on PDF (For free or for sale), there is no way to know if he is selling the copy he bought (technically) and then deleting it from his system and never using it again. He is technically not selling the CD's, but is selling the 3x 3.0 books.

 

[HinterWelt]

How? I don't think all of those products are (legally) available in PDF. And I didn't give him permission to sell copies of my PDFs -- not even the free ones.

Disclaimer: No pointed remarks intended nor advocation of piracy either at you or others, just a question.


So, if they were legally pdfs and he had purchased them, could he resell a single copy, assuming he deletes the file on sale?

Just wondering,
Bill

 

[philreed]

So, if they were legally pdfs and he had purchased them, could he resell a single copy, assuming he deletes the file on sale?

I have no problem with someone doing that with my PDFs. Let me be clear, though. IF they delete the files AND IF they only sell a number of copies equal to the number of copies purchased.

So far each time my PDFs have been on eBay it's been obvious that they're illegal copies.

 

[jmucchiello]

So, if they were legally pdfs and he had purchased them, could he resell a single copy, assuming he deletes the file on sale?

Yes, but you can't know that he did delete it nor that he hasn't sold them 100 times before. The right of first sale even applies to electronic items. It's just more difficult to police.

 

[Man-thing]

I think Phil also has this line "You may not distribute this PDF without permission of the author." so if someone were planning on seeing a Ronin Arts pdf (fools!) then I think it would be appropriate to let the author know that you are selling it and removing it from your computer.

I know I would like to know if a customer didn't want my product anymore and was planning to sell it.