Staples refuses to print my PDFs....

[Mark CMG]

O' and Mark (CMG), I wanted to say Kudos to you for now incorporating that into your PDF's as suggested. One of the best things about forums like this and the community we have here is the fact that the small publishers (and now even a few WOTC folk) take heed to the needs of their consumers quite readily. Though I would make a suggestion of in that permission adding only the need of a receipt as required proof, that could help provide some safety margin verus the Pirates.

Yeti

Thanks and noted on the suggestion. It is important that companies only take steps against piracy that ensure regular consumers are not harmed in the process.

 

[bodhi]

It hurts the customer who can't use the PDF as they legally intended.

I've looked through some of the gaming PDFs I have. A couple explicitly allow printing for personal use. By far, though, they have standard boilerplate copyright notices, along the lines of "all rights reserved" and "any duplication, electronic or otherwise, is prohibited". So while it may be what the publisher intended (and I think it is, too, generally), it's not what they actually said.

 

[carmachu]

As it stands, the copyright laws are still way behind the digital age...

I am sorry you had such an issue, but as it stands, its the law and Staples is just protecting itself.

Karlson

I have to say this doesnt bode well for WotC's digital initative. Making it harder to have a hard copy isnt going to make folks happy.

 

[bodhi]

Not true. He only owns them if you refuse to purchase them from him. The second you purchase those photos, then you buy the rights to them. Unless someone was dumb enough to sign a contract that allowed the photographer to keep the rights.

It depends on your contract. So read your contract. A Google search turned up a couple wedding photo contracts that assigned reproduction rights upon final payment, but also a couple that explicitly kept copyright, and one that didn't mention copyright at all (but that was just a "sample" contract).

Thing is, by default, the photographer/studio holds copyright. If you have photos and a contract assigning you the rights, you shouldn't have any problems. Not that you won't, just that you shouldn't. This thread has demonstrated that there are lots of places that will give you problems regardless. But any professional photographer that is selling you the rights should have no problem providing documentation, whether that be a contract stating such, or an explicit assignment of rights.

 

[bodhi]

I have to say this doesnt bode well for WotC's digital initative. Making it harder to have a hard copy isnt going to make folks happy.

Well, they could always do print compilations. Quarterly or annual softcover books, maybe?

 

[robberbaron]

If I heard about customers that wanted to print our products and couldn't, I'd be annoyed. I mean that's pretty much the point of PDFs, isn't it?

Silly me, I thought the whole point of PDFs was that you didn't have to print them out, not that you'd save a few bucks over the hardback price.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Nobody is complaining that the store won't print things that are illegal to print.

They're ocmplaining that the store won't print things that are legal to print.

Thank you! My point exactly.

 

[Rykion]

I've looked through some of the gaming PDFs I have. A couple explicitly allow printing for personal use. By far, though, they have standard boilerplate copyright notices, along the lines of "all rights reserved" and "any duplication, electronic or otherwise, is prohibited". So while it may be what the publisher intended (and I think it is, too, generally), it's not what they actually said.

Both RPGNow and Drivethru RPG's FAQ indicate that it is OK to print the PDF's for personal use. I would hope a resonable business would accept a printed receipt plus a print out with the FAQ info as proof that the customer has permission to have a copy made of the PDF.

 

[the Jester]

Not true. He only owns them if you refuse to purchase them from him. The second you purchase those photos, then you buy the rights to them.

No, you don't... that is why the photographer can charge an arm and a leg for reprints.

However, you're right that you can buy the rights, if they are willing to sell them to you. But that is not the default. Hell, professional photographer associations will sometimes send out 'spies' to try to get copy shops to break copyright by making copies of wedding photos or the like and then spring a 'gotcha!!!' on them. I've seen it happen.

Nobody is complaining that the store won't print things that are illegal to print.

They're ocmplaining that the store won't print things that are legal to print.

Any time that pdf has a copyright notice that includes verbage to the effect of "no reproduction except for personal use", if I make a copy of it and sell it to you I am breaking copyright, because I am printing it for profit.

Again, most copy centers have self serve areas for exactly this kind of issue. Often, problems arise when someone doesn't want to do it themselves. "No, I want you to do it for me." Well, this note on the front page of your pdf tells me, in writing, that I would be breaking the law to do so. Gimme a written permission, and you're fine.

Frankly, if companies that produce pdfs would include verbage that made allowances for a print shop to make a single print for the purchaser, there wouldn't be a problem. And (at least at my store) we are always happy to help people try to get the permission. Heck, I'll make the phone call myself sometimes. But without the publisher's OK, we are legally obligated to say "Sorry, no can do."

Granted, some of the stories people are relating in this thread are almost sublimely ridiculous- things like, "We don't print pdfs, even if you made it yourself" are just plain stupid. These stories sound to me like the stores in question either have serious training issues, serious lazy employee issues, serious failures in communicating with their customers or seriously anal policy issues. But I certainly can't blame a company for wanting to make sure that they're legally in the clear before they start printing something, especially if you're asking for multiple copies.

 

[S'mon]

It depends on your contract. So read your contract. A Google search turned up a couple wedding photo contracts that assigned reproduction rights upon final payment, but also a couple that explicitly kept copyright, and one that didn't mention copyright at all (but that was just a "sample" contract).

There's no reason the contract couldn't grant a non-exclusive license to reproduce the photos, without assigning copyright. This whole MUST KEEP/MUST GET COPYRIGHT!!! meme that's so common nowadays seems really strange to me (I teach copyright law).