Okay, folks, I know this discussion gets bandied about in a lot of places but I'm hoping I can get some serious and honest answers from folks around here. Now that WOTC, the official owners of the rights to all the Old School modules and books, has banned their sale online (or offline for that matter) what do you think is the moral/i] response when someone offers to give you a .pdf of a module that's been OOP for over 25 years? Notice that I'm not talking about ethics or legality....these are very often fuzzy areas. As most of you know, the legal thing to do may not be the ethical thing to do and the ethical action may not be the legal action. So, I'm asking this question just based on gut feeling. I'd really like the input of some of the people who have been around since the earliest days. Please outline some of your reasoning on this issue. Oh, and FWIW, I'd be willing to pay a reasonable fee for a legal copy of all the Old D&D materials from the beginning up until 1991. These are items that meant a great deal to my childhood......many of them I couldn't afford and some of them OOP before I even began to game (1983) so my biggest frustration is not being able to get a copy of these items legally. Also, any comments about how you feel about "converted" modules that were in the stream and reuploaded with converted stats. I remember finding a file (back before WOTC was selling PDF's) on EN World of U1 (Saltmarsh) converted to 3rd edition. (Of course, I've lost the file since then.....) What do you think about works such as these? Do they fall into the same category or not? Now, please don't think I'm trying to stir things up. These are issues I've dealt with very often. I've had some serious moral questions about how to deal w/ these issues and I'm looking for guidance from people who have been around for a long time. I AM NOT advocating doing anything illegal....I'm just wondering how people feel and react about such matters because, as a minister and a gamer, these questions often come up. (Plus I'm going to throw out some questions on this matter to game publishers at the Christianity & Gaming Panel at GenCon. We need to think about these issues rather than just glossing over them.)
The conversion files from 1e to 3e if for Saltmarsh or Steading of the Hill Giant chief don't fall into the "ban" since they're the creation of the author and don't use any of the material from the original source. WotC made it clear that you had to possess the original module when "supporting" the conversion efforts on ENworld. I have some of the files saved if you need one. PM me. thanks Mike
I can tell you that when I heard the news that WotC was pulling all old skool pdf's, my gut reaction was to go home, do not pass go, do not collect my $200 (what? Home is sort of like jail, right?) and scan my entire collection and dump it to www.thepiratebay.org (or another Torrent site) for the whole world to grab. But, the time that would take, the damage to the books & modules, and the fact that I would feel a bit guilty, in the end made me change my mind. But the bottom line is that no matter how we feel emotionally about it, those items are the property of WotC and they can make them available or not as they see fit. It is, in fact, morally wrong (at least from a Christian-based moral system) to take their property whether or not you intend to sell it or just use it in the privacy of your own home. What I have taken away from this situation is that anything that I publish will be 100% mine and will never be sold (okay for a $1 million dollars maybe... ).
According to those who are posting back from GenCon, there are several rumors flying about: - The PDFs will be back, they're just not sure when. - There was some sort of issue with Adobe itself (???) I'm sorry that I don't have links, if I find them, I'll post back, but these are also just yapping type of stuff, so take it with the proverbial grain of salt.
How about a truckload of road salt? If they are discussing adobe, then there is likely some new, highly restrictive copy protection scheme going in place. I'm even happier now that I purchased my pdfs when I did.
That was the general impression I'm getting and guessing at as well. Everyone wondered if there were some DRM issues and apparently WotC is not paying attention to the electronic media market. It's not like DDI - the PDFs are in the wild.
