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Message: <blockquote data-quote="merelycompetent" data-source="post: 4745516" data-attributes="member: 33830">Cool! EnWorld's been Slashdotted!(Please note that I sincerely hope this does not create any headaches for the excellent Moderators at EnWorld. I just like to see my favorite hobby site get some nerd cred.)Reasons for pulling the PDFs (please note that the following opinions are US-centric):1. Stop the bleeding. Standard triage treatment for a business. Somehow, copies of their products are going out for free. The source apparently was tracked back to PDF purchases. Standard reaction: Halt the availability of all PDF purchases while they figure out what to do about it. Not necessarily the most skilled, experienced, or correct troublehsooting, but it is Troubleshooting 101.2. (I Am Not A Lawyer) Legal requirement: Copyright holder must show that reasonable steps were taken to stop the violations. I expect that the argument could be made that failure to take reasonable steps to stop the violations, once the copyright holder was aware of them, equals complicit agreement with the violations.3. (IANAL) Legal requirement: Seizure of evidence - all evidence concerning the violations, and distribution of infringing material, must be sealed, secured, and verified.Court cases are, in my very limited experience (IMVLE), massive chess games, where fine shades of wording and meaning are shaved into fractions of carbon nanotubes. Smart parties hire experts (lawyers) to help them win the chess game. Courts (again, IMVLE) tend to proceed at speeds well below glacial, very conservatively, and in considerable fear of making an incorrect decision that will result in massive expense and/or disruption. The involved lawyers and clients will also proceed very slowly, carefully, and conservatively. That leads to...4. (IANAL) Professional Legal Advice: If your expensive, bill-by-the-hour, expert who will determine whether or not your passive income stream (PDF sales) may again generate income in the future or turn into a huge, financially crushing, company-destroying screwup, advises you to do something, you do it 99% of the time - even if you think you shouldn't have to. Otherwise, you are wasting your hard-earned money paying for expert advice that you are now ignoring, and will likely lose BIG in court.Legal issues are strange conflicts, combining elements of privacy, time, secrecy, strategy, tactics, resource management, evidence, discussion, referrals to previous cases, and history of archaic and mind-boggling precedents, that are conducted on a rarefied battlefield laden with pitfalls and traps for the ignorant. I hope no one on this forum ever has to enter that battlefield. Events on that battlefield will determine whether people go to prison, are financially ruined, continue to be employed, or retain ownership of property. Even the cost of merely defending oneself in this theatre of conflict (and yes, that is intended as a pun on multiple levels) can ruin one's bank account and/or reputation. In light of that, I don't think it is unreasonable to go a month, even two, without PDF purchases while WotC tries to straighten this frakked up mess out.I applaud WotC taking the necessary steps to shut down copyright violators and bring them to the consequences outlined by law. If I had the ability to help them pursue these copyright violators, I would gladly donate my information, skills, and time to the effort. I also don't expect any significant information on the why's and wherefore's of their actions for several weeks, if not several months. Smart lawyers recommend things like that, so that their non-lawyer clients don't muck up the legal proceedings by shooting their mouths off.Watching the court filings will likely provide more information than anything else.Short of someone releasing additional verifiable, concrete information, all we have now are a few limited facts (already posted) and lots emotional speculation and guesses.</blockquote>

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