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<blockquote data-quote="Urriak Uruk" data-source="post: 8070594" data-attributes="member: 7015558"><p>I'm pretty sure this is a myth, the idea that "Making PDFs available for sale makes them more likely to be bought instead of pirated."</p><p></p><p>Truth is, whether or not Wizard's makes PDFs available, their going to be pirated; but probably not at the same levels. Yes if you look hard enough you can find a PDF copy of the latest release, but that's still a little more complicated than someone buying a PDF copy and then sending that copy to his friend, who sends it to his friends, etc etc.</p><p></p><p>The committed pirate will always get that free PDF if they look hard enough. But most folks aren't really committed like that, and find delving in obscure websites dodgy and unethical. But sharing a copy with a friend, that doesn't seem unethical.</p><p></p><p>It's like HBO. Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV show of all time; but did HBO give up and say, "We aren't able to stop pirates, so let's make this available for free with ads"? No. They did their cost-benefit analysis and found that yes, pirates gonna pirate, but many folks don't pirate for various reasons, and that's going to make more money in subscription $ than making it free with ads.</p><p></p><p>No doubt WotC has done that same cost-benefit analysis with PDFs and found it isn't valuable enough to do.</p><p></p><p>TLDR: Piracy is an expected cost in business, but that doesn't mean that making PDF sales available outweighs the reduced piracy.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Urriak Uruk, post: 8070594, member: 7015558"] I'm pretty sure this is a myth, the idea that "Making PDFs available for sale makes them more likely to be bought instead of pirated." Truth is, whether or not Wizard's makes PDFs available, their going to be pirated; but probably not at the same levels. Yes if you look hard enough you can find a PDF copy of the latest release, but that's still a little more complicated than someone buying a PDF copy and then sending that copy to his friend, who sends it to his friends, etc etc. The committed pirate will always get that free PDF if they look hard enough. But most folks aren't really committed like that, and find delving in obscure websites dodgy and unethical. But sharing a copy with a friend, that doesn't seem unethical. It's like HBO. Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV show of all time; but did HBO give up and say, "We aren't able to stop pirates, so let's make this available for free with ads"? No. They did their cost-benefit analysis and found that yes, pirates gonna pirate, but many folks don't pirate for various reasons, and that's going to make more money in subscription $ than making it free with ads. No doubt WotC has done that same cost-benefit analysis with PDFs and found it isn't valuable enough to do. TLDR: Piracy is an expected cost in business, but that doesn't mean that making PDF sales available outweighs the reduced piracy. [/QUOTE]
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