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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kurtomatic" data-source="post: 5190398" data-attributes="member: 85486">Hmm...If I offer a web information service (via a HTTP API, for example), I can specify a contract agreement that you have to sign in order for you to access and consume that service. If I think that agreement has been broken, I can take steps to fix the problem, such as terminating access. I could also send you a C&D, which might simply be a formal notice that I think you've busted our contract, and some kind of remediation is in order to stay in agreement.For example, the US Postal Service offers a free address data API. To use it, you have to apply for an account. Since they don't owe anyone access, they can deny your application if they don't like your answers. You have to jump through some testing hoops to prove your client code works correctly, and you have to agree to a whole bunch of very restrictive usage rules. Since you only get access to the live data with a unique account, they can cut you off at any time if they even think you're breaking the agreement. You cannot access this service without explicitly agreeing to these terms.Now, if I wanted to make it easy for lots of people to use my web service without a lot of up-front red tape, I could simply offer a blanket agreement that says, "Here is my web service and how to connect to it; by using my service you agree to the following restrictions..."Notice that the actual content of my web service is entirely irrelevant up to this point. The USPS data isn't copyrighted in any way. There is certainly nothing criminal in any of this, unless (maybe) fraud is somehow involved.In the case of the DDI, WotC never had to implement a web service to begin with. All the DDI features: Character Builder, Adventure Tools, Compendium web page, magazines, etc., would continue to work just as they do now. Everything would be exactly the same, except that third-party apps could no longer access the Compendium database. WotC doesn't owe anybody a web service. The only purpose for offering such a public API is so that third party apps such as iPlay4e and Masterplan can exist in the first place. WotC wants these apps to exist (otherwise: no API), but they also want to set some boundaries on them and they do have a right to attempt this, for better or worse. The Compendium API is their sandbox and they get to set the rules. It doesn't require copyright infringement or criminal activity for them to attempt enforce those rules. Whether those rules are actually enforcible (or 'fair', or 'good for D&D', or 'fun to use', 'or totally metal', etc.) is another question entirely.How did I just know I was going to read that answer? <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/paranoid.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":uhoh:" title="Paranoid    :uhoh:" data-shortname=":uhoh:" />I get why people say that, but here is another way of looking at it: its all matter of context. Is WotC Legal rolling a d20 and consulting a random C&D encounter table? If not, then at least they think they have a reasonable basis for taking the actions they take. It may not look rational to you, and their behavior may not make much sense to their customers, but in a publicly-traded corporation, there is usual a method buried somewhere in the madness.To tie this back to the actual thread topic: in speculating what Masterplan might look like post-C&D, you first have to guess what's in the C&D. To do that, you need to try reverse-engineering WotC's motives and frame of reference. In this way, "rationalizing" means trying to find a context in which their actions might make sense and extrapolating from there. Simply sticking a Snidely Whiplash mustache on a Greg Leads cut-out doesn't contribute much to that effort. Um.., as far as I know, anyway... <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/nervous.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":heh:" title="Nervous Laugh    :heh:" data-shortname=":heh:" /></blockquote>

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