The guy who leaked the Core Books was a:

[Kunimatyu]

These were going to end up on torrents sooner or later, but the person responsible for this *stole* the prepaints, or broke NDA and gave them to someone. Sidestepping the whole filesharing legality "debate", this was out-and-out theft, and deserves to be punished harshly.

There's also a possibility that nobody in WotC's direct chain-of-command broke the rules, but an email account/computer/server etc got hacked and the material was stolen that way. In that case, the individual who did it is guilty of some pretty bad stuff.

I suspect what this really was, though, was an indirect cost of doing business in China. I suspect there was little incentive to stop a midlevel printing firm person from leaking the info -- when the company overseeing you is across the Pacific Ocean and you're likely fairly well protected with anonymity, what's* to stop you, especially if it's difficult for WotC to use US law to prosecute you?

(*ethics?)

 

[rgard]

Disagree with what? My desire to know what this instance of copyright violation actually did? How can you possibly disagree with a desire for knowledge?

-- N

I disagree with your implication is that the illegal distribution actually helped sales. You can't come to that conclusion based on the surge in sales alone. There are too many other factors to consider that may or may not influence the sales.

Do you know what the corresponding spike or lack of spike of sales was prior to the 3e release? Did Amazon.com even exist then? That might support on detract from your contention. How many folks got their economy stimulus checks in the past 2 weeks as opposed to over the past month? How many decided they didn't want to risk not getting a copy of the books when first released and decided to order just to be safe. How many decided to order the books on line instead of driving to the store due to the recent spike in gasoline prices? How many just now clawed their way out of the holiday debt trap and have some spare cash?

There are too many variable to make the link, sorry.

Also I disagree with your contention that the potential loss of jobs is emotive and polarizes the issue. It's part of the issue.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Nifft]

I disagree with your implication is that the illegal distribution actually helped sales. You can't come to that conclusion based on the surge in sales alone.

You're attributing stuff to me that I didn't say.

Do you know what the corresponding spike or lack of spike of sales was prior to the 3e release? Did Amazon.com even exist then? That might support on detract from your contention.

Wouldn't it be nice if we knew that? If you have the data, please do link it. I'm curious, too. (But to answer one of your questions: yes, 1994 came before 2000, so Amazon was indeed around when 3e was released.)

Also I disagree with your contention that the potential loss of jobs is emotive and polarizes the issue. It's part of the issue.

It's part of a different issue. I'm asking the question: what effect does this have? And you're just asserting: it has a bad effect, which may lead to job loss.

If you can back up the assertion that the effect is bad -- with numbers that are trustworthy, which I seriously doubt exist -- I'll be very impressed. However, my whole point is that it's terribly frustrating those numbers don't exist. Perhaps this case will shed some light.

- - -

Short version: I'm curious what actually happened, and stop putting words in my mouth.

-- N

 

[rgard]

You're attributing stuff to me that I didn't say.

Wouldn't it be nice if we knew that? If you have the data, please do link it. I'm curious, too. (But to answer one of your questions: yes, 1994 came before 2000, so Amazon was indeed around when 3e was released.)

It's part of a different issue. I'm asking the question: what effect does this have? And you're just asserting: it has a bad effect, which may lead to job loss.

If you can back up the assertion that the effect is bad -- with numbers that are trustworthy, which I seriously doubt exist -- I'll be very impressed. However, my whole point is that it's terribly frustrating those numbers don't exist. Perhaps this case will shed some light.

- - -

Short version: I'm curious what actually happened, and stop putting words in my mouth.

-- N

We both know where you were going this. Illegal distribution = increased sales.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Piratecat]

I missed the original "douchebag" label, which we're not crazy about, and I really think we've had enough threads about piracy. Closed it goes.