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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 1174529" data-attributes="member: 2013">Not sure I agree with this.  How do you determine what is "pirated" and what is not?  If I show up with a few pages copied from my rulebook which I left at home because I don't want to drag the whole rulebook along, is that piracy?  I consider it "fair use" myself.  Will you require me to drag along my receipt for the book?  This is too much trouble, and gamers, being the lazy lot that we are, will simply go elsewhere.The second one is even more silly.  Why does EVERY player in a group need the Core Rulebook?  And how is this going to help all the d20 companies?  In the case of d20, it only helps WotC.  And why can't I just bring a (free) copy of the System Reference Document on my laptop?  It's the *rule*book, right?  Why can't I let my friend borrow my rulebook to make his character?  That's "Fair Use."  Again, this will not help at all; gamers will merely find somewhere else to play.I understand where you're coming from - you're attributing lost sales to "piracy" but I think you overestimate the problem of piracy as it relates to Lost Sales (repeat after me: "Fair Use" - such as sharing a single copy of a rulebook - is NOT Piracy and more importantly "An Illegal Copy is NOT NECESSARILY a Lost Sale" - and keep in mind I'm saying the latter as a PUBLISHER, not as someone who is a "materials pirate" - in my mind, many people who have "pirated copies" of stuff would not have bought it if the price were greater than free, so there's no real Lost Sale there - they are unethically benefitting from my work, but their ethics or lack thereof is a totally separate and distinct issue from my Lost Sales).  Further, you're killing an ant with a sledgehammer.  This introduces an extra level of work to gaming, which most gamers don't want.  If I want to play 5 games at a Convention, do I need to haul around a backpack with 5 different rulebooks?  If I want my group to try a new game, why should all of us go buy the book when one book would suffice at least for a tryout period of a month or two?  Most of all, why are you so desirous to trample my "Fair Use" rights in letting me lend my copy of my book to a friend?  In one of the longest-lived gaming groups I worked with, we had a "library" set up at the house of the guy we normally played at... we all bought a book here or there and kept all the books at this guy's house - then when we wanted to take a book, we just took it with us.  Since everyone had tossed 10-15 books into the "community pile" we didn't worry about who the "original owner" was - we just took what we needed and returned it when we were finished.  And having a library of around 100 books to choose from since we decided to share was much better than having a library of 10-15 had we all purchased our own books.  Is THAT against your sense of fair play?Your heart is in the right place, but the execution is sorely lacking.--The Sigil</blockquote>

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