Torrent throwdown on the Wizards board

[Geek-Zilla]

Having read this thread and the one linked by the OP...I thought I might chime in with my two cents worth.

We currently live in a society that has a generation of youth that has grown up with the internet as a significant fixture in their lives. There is a common perception with that generation that information on the internet is and should be free. Now, this is not to say that this perception is right or wrong...it's just the way that it is. Also, let me be clear that this attitude is not limited to todays youth...many today, regardless of their age/generation, share this attitude. With that being said, if you ask the average person "Should people get paid for their work/effort?" The general answer is going to be yes.

So how in this day and age, do you get content to the consumer and money to the producer? That really is the million dollar question. Some would argue that DRM is the solution, but with the Sony Rootkit debacle people have a general distrust of DRM. In fact, DRM free music for download (through a pay service) is a value added benefit for consumers and marketed as such. There is the RIAA/MPAA approach by going after the end-user, but this also has it's problems. It just doesn't work. It alienates your consumer base, is bad PR, it's costly, and actually makes the people "smarter" in terms of how not to get caught. Case in point...I work in the IT field, and I know that a person who would never download a pirated DVD/MP3 from home, because it can be traced to their IP address, will download that content from a free public WiFi hotspot without a second thought.

So what is the optimal solution? I really don't know....if I did I'd probably be rich. But just off the top of my head this a possible option that could work (or not): A content provider publishes a work in two forms, one being the book for purchase at a B&M store for let's say $30, the other being a purchased legal download PDF from their site for $30. Along with that PDF there is a coupon/certificate that the person could take, say to a Kinkos, where they could have it printed and bound.

To be honest I know nothing about the printing business....just kinda of thinking out load.

Anyway....just some thoughts about this....and really looking forward to get my hands on the books!!!

 

[Cirex]

We live in an information age. Many people's livelihoods are completely based on being paid to create and/or spread information. This group includes teachers, authors, artists, musicians, doctors, accountants, programmers, analysts, and other specialists. Obviously, they shouldn't be paid because knowledge should be free.

Nobody is saying that, so don't make up things trying to defend your position.

The effect of downloads on sales is close to zero.

 

[RigaMortus2]

I (and a lot of people) find reading huge blocks of text on a computer screen difficult and what happens when you actually need to play?

I am in the minority that actually PREFERS to read on the computer screen vs a book, assuming the copy is a good one. I can spend hours reading websites and pdfs, whereas I get bored reading books after about an hour.

However, I will say this. I find it a lot easier to reference stuff from a book than on a pdf. If I know what page it is on or near, it's easier to flip through the book for me...

 

[Dire Bare]

Here's an idea for D&D:
The DDI subscriber thing, why not have an additional service, say $5 a month,for free pdfs of ANY D&D product. Think about it...how many folk would sign up for that...how much revenue would it engender!

Marvel Comics has already done something similar to this. For, I think, $10 a month you can view all of Marvel's digital titles unlimited. They don't have all of their comics "scanned" into the system yet, but they have an impressive list of both new and old titles, and it grows daily. I'd have signed up if I weren't a DC man myself. The titles are viewed over the web, and can't be downloaded (unless some enterprising hacker has already gotten past this). I wonder how well this is working for Marvel? I would LOVE to see something similar integrated into the D&D Insider package, it would rock!

 

[malraux]

As far as copyright violation, no company has actually tried to press the case because they're afraid of the repercussions. The cable industry spent years being afraid to prosecute those who stole signal. We punished the distributors, but it didn't stop. By contrast, companies that have gone after the end-user have seen success. Not at putting those people in jail, mind you, but at turning them into paying customers, or at least preventing them from stealing our signal.

RIAA? Are you telling me that I can't find lots of music on torrents now?

 

[warlockwannabe]

Nobody is saying that, so don't make up things trying to defend your position.

The effect of downloads on sales is close to zero.

You can try to rationalize till you turn blue. The fact is if you have taken something without permission or paying for it, you have stolen it.

 

[malraux]

Nobody is saying that, so don't make up things trying to defend your position.

The effect of downloads on sales is close to zero.

Well, the effect of music downloads on sales is close to zero. I'd expect that different segments could have other effects.

 

[Dire Bare]

While sometimes it's fun to read all the pathetic justifications for infomation theft in these types of threads, it gets wearying after a while. One positive of this never-ending argument is that I get a good chance to update my ignore list by perusing threads like this.

Information was meant to be free! Uh, why? Who says? I think food should be free, but it isn't. I think that no one truly should "own" land, but that's how it works anyway.

 

[Cirex]

You can try to rationalize till you turn blue. The fact is if you have taken something without permission or paying for it, you have stolen it.

The Spanish law, among the law of most European countries, disagree with you.
I don't need permission of the owner (it's rightly specified in the laws).
And I'm not stealing something. I am not taking anything away with the use of force, the owner still has it and I got no profit intentions.

Malraux, that line holds truth for most markets, even pharmaceutical products (says so in the study, need to research further) and for our case, books.
I know it by hand by movies and accounting products, since I've worked with both.
Software is probably the most delicated one, especially accounting programs and Windows itself (due licenses).

Dire_Bare, thanks for making-up more stuff. Greatly appreciated.

 

[Rykion]

Nobody is saying that, so don't make up things trying to defend your position.

The effect of downloads on sales is close to zero.

Yes they are. There is no difference in saying all knowlede should be free, and that we shouldn't pay people for their knowledge.

I guarnatee that the effects of illegal downloads is far greater than near zero effect. While someone who downloads 100 CDs of music a month wasn't going to buy all of them, they'd probably buy 5 or so. Even if it's just a loss of 5 CD sales per year for the average downloader we're talking about millions of dollars in lost revenue.