White Wolf licensed d20 stuff gone on rpgnow?

[jefgorbach]

publishers repeatedly refuse to sell PDFs to customers and/or pull what they DO offer without warning then wonder why piracy seems to be a growing(?) solution to the problem THEY willingly create??

 

[pawsplay]

publishers repeatedly refuse to sell PDFs to customers and/or pull what they DO offer without warning then wonder why piracy seems to be a growing(?) solution to the problem THEY willingly create??

In this case, though, it's the licensor's problem, and a successful MMO publisher doesn't necessary care about a few hundred PDF sales. At all. They probably don't even care about the piracy, their lawyers just won't let them say, "By quietly letting the license expire, we're basically saying we don't care about the sales or the resultant piracy."

 

[Matt-M-McElroy]

I could have sworn RPG Now had a feature where a publisher could e-mail people who had purchased their products.

We do have that feature for all publishers on the site. Customers of course can set the permissions on their account to not all publishers to contact them if they so desire.

Actually, I see some d20 stuff up. Just not that stuff.

Those titles are either produced by White Wolf (or more likely Sword & Sorcery) or product lines purchased outright by White Wolf at some point and not licensed product lines.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

I did notice that I still have the download links for all of my RL3E PDFs however.

Yes, anyone who had previously purchased a book should still be able to download it from their My Account page.

All licensed products have a set specific time period where they may be sold. Once that period has expired, publishers must remove them from sale.

This is exactly what happened with most of these books. The terms of the agreement for Ravenloft, Gamma World, etc had expired and all physical inventory had sold, the agreements also included a sunset on the eBook sales of those items.

In this case, though, it's the licensor's problem, and a successful MMO publisher doesn't necessary care about a few hundred PDF sales. At all.

White Wolf is not going to turn down money from an expanded inventory of books. Why would they not want to sell something they produced? In this case, they had to follow the terms of the agreements made.

Regards,

Matt

 

[dmccoy1693]

I just wish they made some kind of announcement about it. Had they said, "the ravenloft license ends in one month. Buy now or forever hold your peace," I would have bought the whole collection. But now I just got two battered old books on my shelves and nothing else. Not nearly enough to run a game soI'm probably just going to eBay what I have.

 

[Voadam]

This is exactly what happened with most of these books. The terms of the agreement for Ravenloft, Gamma World, etc had expired and all physical inventory had sold, the agreements also included a sunset on the eBook sales of those items.



White Wolf is not going to turn down money from an expanded inventory of books. Why would they not want to sell something they produced? In this case, they had to follow the terms of the agreements made.

Regards,

Matt

And do you know if the license agreement from WotC included a nondisclosure clause on anouncing the end of the ebook sale period?

If so I'd be more annoyed at WotC. If not I'd still be annoyed at WW.

Why would they not want to sell something they produced?

There is precedent. It is not always license agreements. WotC dropped their sales of their entire library of products, something like 500 or a thousand D&D pdfs which were also some of the biggest sellers on rpgnow, for fairly inexplicable reasons unrelated to license agreements.

FFE retiring their library I expect was from the company shutting down.

 

[Matt-M-McElroy]

And do you know if the license agreement from WotC included a nondisclosure clause on anouncing the end of the ebook sale period?

If so I'd be more annoyed at WotC. If not I'd still be annoyed at WW.

Unfortunately the terms of those agreements are not openly available.

There is precedent. It is not always license agreements. WotC dropped their sales of their entire library of products, something like 500 or a thousand D&D pdfs which were also some of the biggest sellers on rpgnow, for fairly inexplicable reasons unrelated to license agreements.

FFE retiring their library I expect was from the company shutting down.

Oh I know all about these and other catalogs being removed from the site, as the person who works most with the publishers I often work with publishers who need these changes made.

-Matt