WOTC switch to watermarking, finally...

[JoeGKushner]

I bought the Player's Kit specifically for the softcover PHB. It's lighter and easier to carry around and serves as my table book. Meaning that it's the book that gets passed around at the table during the game. I dont care if it gets the crap kicked out of it, I'm a little more protective of my hardcovers, but not by much.

Then again I tend to view my gaming books as utilites to be used than to go an shelf and be looked at or read as prose, so I place a different value on them.

Ditto. I keep the ha rdcover on the shelf and the softcover gets passed around. Very handy and I was very disappointed that no softcover DMG came out. Would've made throwing it into the back seat of the old Saturn and having some quick reading material a lot easier.

 

[Ranger REG]

OK, more specifically, IIRC someone who buys a copyrighted product has the right to make a copy for archival reasons. This is definitely true for computer programs (section 117) and for other things may fall under "fair use" (section 107). Of course I am not a lawyer so take anything I write with a grain of salt.

But what if you sell that copy or simply gave it away to your friend while keeping the original?

 

[Treebore]

Again, I said these problems are not insurmountable--just that solving them takes effort and money that might not make it worth it.

Believe me, after 20 years of marketing experience in the game industry, I can tell you that acheiving a reasonable level of compliance across the entire realm of game distribution with even a simple program is iffy at best. Implementing a vaguely complex program--especially one where real money is at stake--is a nightmare.

On a slightly different issue:



Which begs the question: Does WotC want to sell PDFs to people like you? My guess is the answer is "no," especially not at the expense of retailers and channels that are strategically much more important than the direct-to-consumer PDF model.

So perhaps the total current market for this product is only 5% of all D&D consumers. Maybe WotC is just fine with that. Maybe they're looking ahead to a day when a greater percentage of consumers value PDFs equal to or above hardcovers. Either way, they aren't motivated to undervalue their products for the benefit of people who aren't their target market.

If companies don't encourage people to try pdf's the strong and highly profitable pdf market will just be that much further off.