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<blockquote data-quote="afreed" data-source="post: 2482380" data-attributes="member: 2281">I think it's a nice idea in principle, but ultimately flawed for several reasons:1) It's a tacit endorsement of the piracy mindset. Now, I empathize with some of what pirates say--but by setting up this system, you're not just risking your money; you're helping pirates justify what they do, and giving them further reason to pirate from other publishers. In other words, someone who downloads your product and donates to the, uh, pirate treasure, can then say to themselves, &quot;If other publishers set up a system like XPR's, I'd donate a few dollars to them, but since they don't, I'm justified in pirating their books without paying.&quot;Mind, I'm not looking to blame you for anything...just pointing out a potential unintended consequence.2) Similarly, you're encouraging the notion that the customer should decide what to pay for a product, instead of the notion that a creator should decide what to sell a product for. That's an extremely creator-unfriendly position. I don't buy many RPG books these days, because I don't see them as worth what I'd have to pay. But I also don't complain about RPG prices, because I know they're based on the creators' and publishers' needs. If I pay WotC $20 for a hardcover instead of $0 for nothing, it's good for them...but if everyone else does the same thing, WotC goes out of business.3) As other people have mentioned, you'll annoy existing honest customers. You may also drive existing customers to pirate your material, because they'll see you acknowledging it as acceptable.Hope that makes sense. If you give it a shot anyway, best of luck with it!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="afreed, post: 2482380, member: 2281"] I think it's a nice idea in principle, but ultimately flawed for several reasons: 1) It's a tacit endorsement of the piracy mindset. Now, I empathize with some of what pirates say--but by setting up this system, you're not just risking your money; you're helping pirates justify what they do, and giving them further reason to pirate from [i]other[/i] publishers. In other words, someone who downloads your product and donates to the, uh, pirate treasure, can then say to themselves, "If other publishers set up a system like XPR's, I'd donate a few dollars to them, but since they don't, I'm justified in pirating their books without paying." Mind, I'm not looking to blame [i]you[/i] for anything...just pointing out a potential unintended consequence. 2) Similarly, you're encouraging the notion that the [i]customer[/i] should decide what to pay for a product, instead of the notion that a creator should decide what to sell a product for. That's an extremely creator-unfriendly position. I don't buy many RPG books these days, because I don't see them as worth what I'd have to pay. But I also don't complain about RPG prices, because I know they're based on the creators' and publishers' needs. If I pay WotC $20 for a hardcover instead of $0 for nothing, it's good for them...but if everyone else does the same thing, WotC goes out of business. 3) As other people have mentioned, you'll annoy existing honest customers. You may also drive existing customers to pirate your material, because they'll see you acknowledging it as acceptable. Hope that makes sense. If you give it a shot anyway, best of luck with it! [/QUOTE]

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