DRM, PDF, DTRPG, and other acronyms...
The current debate sparked by the emergence of DriveThruRPG.com concerning the security on the PDFs they sell is interesting to follow. On the one end of the spectrum are gamers who are screaming about their "rights" being "violated". At the other end of the spectrum are publishers who, quite frankly, are being complete asses in their responses (I understand how frustrating dealing with people at the other end can be, but please - aren't you guys supposed to be the "professionals" in this industry? Try to act like it). In between - fortunately - are rational arguments by both "sides" about the pro's and con's of what's being done.
My take on this (for anyone that cares) is that I don't like it. The "copy/paste 10 times every 10 days" thing isn't that restrictive, it's a combination of two things - lack of portability and cost. From what I understand, it sounds like it's a major inconvenience to use one of these PDFs on more than one machine. So if I plunk down $30 for one, I need to re-register it on my laptop it I want to use it there as well as if I want to copy it to my USB drive and read it at work during lunch. Note that I'm talking about legitimate uses of something I legally bought - I'm not advocating piracy. I wouldn't be posting an opinion about this if I did - I'd just shrug and grab the files off of Kazaa or one of the other file-sharing networks. I need to look into this more, though, as I'm not entirely sure this is an issue as some are describing it.
Now, if I'm buying a PDF, I expect it to cost less than the print version of the book. If part of the cost of a print book is due to costs for paper, ink, warehousing, etc., and those costs are eliminated with a PDF, I expect that savings to be passed on to me. Particularly since if I decide to print out the PDF, it's going to cost me additional money to do so. And if the PDF is in color, I need to print it somewhere other than my desktop (my laser printer is B&W)...which leads back to the inconvenience I mention above. Now, if the PDF is being released at the same time as the print version, I can understand charging the same price - you don't want to cannibalize your sales of the print book by charging less for the PDF. But I would expect the PDF price to decrease, then, after the initial front-log time of 90 days (or whatever they call it) is done.
There's also format issues. Again, many publishers are dismissing that as a concern, but my 1st Edition DMG still works - and it's over 20 years old. So do the Original D&D and Travellers books I have - with the former being almost older than me. Adobe stands to be around for a good while - but for how long? What if their format for DRM'ed PDFs change in the next 3-5 years? How easy is it to "convert" a DRM'ed PDF to a new version? Format obsolence is a bigger deal than most people think, in my opinion. And the world and computer industry do change rapidly; how many people are still using VisiCalc or dBase, or TurboPascal? Extreme examples, to be sure, but this is still an issue. Track down a copy of "Dark Ages II: When the Digital Data Die" and read it (informative, though a little dry) if you don't think so.
Anyway, that's my opinion. I think this is still a great way to get old, OOP stuff and it's certainly nice for the people who can't get the print version of books easily or cheaply. But for me, the way the DRM is being done adds no value, and actually reduces the value of products where the option is an eBook or a printed version in almost all cases. If I want cut-and-paste ease, the value may increase over-and-above how much it's decreased by DRM, but in general, all the DRM does is make it less likely I would buy the eBook over the printed product.
Again, I'm not claiming my "rights" are being "violated", and I'm not trying to tell any of the publishers how they "need" to run their businesses. I'm simply expressing my opinion as a consumer. I may be one of the 4-5 insignificant geeks that the publishers don't care about, and if that's the case, then so be it...though I find it odd how they keep reminding us how small the industry is, but then dismiss out-of-hand those people who disagree with them - which right now isn't really that small a number (I'm extrapolating a bit, but remember that it's people on-line who buy PDFs, so using the people who are debating the issue right now as a sample isn't too outlandish); but hey, who are we to question them? Our purpose is to buy their books regardless of quality so the Stackpole's of the world don't have to get real jobs!
My take on this (for anyone that cares) is that I don't like it. The "copy/paste 10 times every 10 days" thing isn't that restrictive, it's a combination of two things - lack of portability and cost. From what I understand, it sounds like it's a major inconvenience to use one of these PDFs on more than one machine. So if I plunk down $30 for one, I need to re-register it on my laptop it I want to use it there as well as if I want to copy it to my USB drive and read it at work during lunch. Note that I'm talking about legitimate uses of something I legally bought - I'm not advocating piracy. I wouldn't be posting an opinion about this if I did - I'd just shrug and grab the files off of Kazaa or one of the other file-sharing networks. I need to look into this more, though, as I'm not entirely sure this is an issue as some are describing it.
Now, if I'm buying a PDF, I expect it to cost less than the print version of the book. If part of the cost of a print book is due to costs for paper, ink, warehousing, etc., and those costs are eliminated with a PDF, I expect that savings to be passed on to me. Particularly since if I decide to print out the PDF, it's going to cost me additional money to do so. And if the PDF is in color, I need to print it somewhere other than my desktop (my laser printer is B&W)...which leads back to the inconvenience I mention above. Now, if the PDF is being released at the same time as the print version, I can understand charging the same price - you don't want to cannibalize your sales of the print book by charging less for the PDF. But I would expect the PDF price to decrease, then, after the initial front-log time of 90 days (or whatever they call it) is done.
There's also format issues. Again, many publishers are dismissing that as a concern, but my 1st Edition DMG still works - and it's over 20 years old. So do the Original D&D and Travellers books I have - with the former being almost older than me. Adobe stands to be around for a good while - but for how long? What if their format for DRM'ed PDFs change in the next 3-5 years? How easy is it to "convert" a DRM'ed PDF to a new version? Format obsolence is a bigger deal than most people think, in my opinion. And the world and computer industry do change rapidly; how many people are still using VisiCalc or dBase, or TurboPascal? Extreme examples, to be sure, but this is still an issue. Track down a copy of "Dark Ages II: When the Digital Data Die" and read it (informative, though a little dry) if you don't think so.
Anyway, that's my opinion. I think this is still a great way to get old, OOP stuff and it's certainly nice for the people who can't get the print version of books easily or cheaply. But for me, the way the DRM is being done adds no value, and actually reduces the value of products where the option is an eBook or a printed version in almost all cases. If I want cut-and-paste ease, the value may increase over-and-above how much it's decreased by DRM, but in general, all the DRM does is make it less likely I would buy the eBook over the printed product.
Again, I'm not claiming my "rights" are being "violated", and I'm not trying to tell any of the publishers how they "need" to run their businesses. I'm simply expressing my opinion as a consumer. I may be one of the 4-5 insignificant geeks that the publishers don't care about, and if that's the case, then so be it...though I find it odd how they keep reminding us how small the industry is, but then dismiss out-of-hand those people who disagree with them - which right now isn't really that small a number (I'm extrapolating a bit, but remember that it's people on-line who buy PDFs, so using the people who are debating the issue right now as a sample isn't too outlandish); but hey, who are we to question them? Our purpose is to buy their books regardless of quality so the Stackpole's of the world don't have to get real jobs!
Labels: publishers, RPG, software
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