I would like to offer up a solution that takes more than 140 characters that ideally should make everyone happy.
DDI is the solution to everything, people have commented how 4e has been very video game ish, including how DDI operates, why not use this to your advantage.
Each book, real or PDF comes with a unique serial number that you register with your DDI account. In the case of PDF the serial number is embedded in the PDF in multiple locations so that if put on the internet it can be linked back to a user.
DDI accounts at that point should be banned if cough passing info online, or rewarded for buying things. Why not give DDI out for free if i am already buying at least two products a month and registering them with you.
Also if I register a real book, give me the option to buy the PDF version with a discount.
This won't stop people from uploading their own PDF's and the pirating version, but it will create a core alternative that will keep people away.
Phonograph cylinder was supposed to kill the music industryMagnetic tape was supposed to kill the music industry
MP3's were supposed to kill the music industry
Yet the industry continues to grow after each new technology. Same thing with movies, and now you can buy movies on iTunes.
Companies willing to take that next step and advance their print to digital print will be the ones that continue to make money from it.
This is just my idea, but hopefully it gets someones attention and they go hey, that makes sense.
Until next time, keep your dice on the table, and your dirty cheato infested fingers out of my books.
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That's the Neopets type approach, right? I was thinking they should have done this with books, minis and cards too.
ReplyDeleteDoh! Not Neopets... I meant Webkinz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webkinz
ReplyDeleteWotC did consider a similar idea, but there ended up being a lot of logistical problems with including unique codes in books. For one, retailers hated it: either you had to seal the book, or someone could copy the code out of the book, then the legitimate buyer was screwed.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think DDI should just provide all the PDFs, with better indexing and hyperlinking, but I'm sure that wouldn't fly.
I'm with Dave the Game on this one. The PDFs are free to reproduce, so they should be available without charge. But since that won't happen, the next best thing is to just focus on selling your products as digital and hard copies, and completely ignore the piracy thing. You end up doing better that way.
ReplyDeleteIt would be easy to get a clean PDF by using fake names and credit gift cards. It's also possible to remove watermarks if they are present.
ReplyDeleteThe answer is to ignore piracy. All attempts to fight it just waste money and hurt your public image. Look at the music industry.
@Dave
ReplyDeleteThey could include the codes inside the minis packages - those are already sealed, so people couldn't just copy them down.
The modules are also shrink-wrapped, so you can't really look inside those either.
Perhaps allow retailers to stock the book in both formats: real books and as 'gift cards' with a serial number you enter on the WotC site, much like an iTunes gift card, to get the PDF. If you buy both at the same time, you get a discount on the PDF. The PDF would be watermarked for some kind of tracking.
ReplyDelete* WotC sells the product the buyer wants: book or pdf or both.
* Retailer can sell the product the buyer wants.
* Discount if you get both.
* Reasonable measures to track piracy.