[jgbrowning]

Originally posted by Steve Wieck
The rest seemed to just be complaints with no specifics about what they can do with a pdf that they cannot do with a protected e-Book file.

With secure files:
You can back-up them as easily as any other file

All my info comes from Adobe's Faq.
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/30f36.htm

"Q: How do I backup my eBooks?
A: You can back up your eBooks using the Backup button in "My Bookshelf". This will copy your eBooks to another location such as a hard drive, file server or CD. You will not be able to view the eBooks from another PC or Macintosh unless it has also been activated under your account in the Adobe DRM Activator."

Customers can only use them on the computer the files are registered to. If that computer crashed (or perhaps upgraded to new?), the ebook is keyed to a dead computer. If they backed it up on CD, the file is skill keyed to the dead computer. This may not mean they can't get it keyed to another computer, but they'll have to register again and [possibly?] get permission to key the file to another computer.

You can use them on multiple machines

"Q: Can I view my eBooks on multiple machines?
A: You can view an eBook on one PC or Macintosh and on one PalmOS device. Adobe is currently investigating the possibility of expanding the number of devices that a user can use to view eBooks.

Q: What is Activation and why is it required?
A: Activation is a process that enables your device, whether it's a computer or a PDA, to view digitally-protected content like eBooks. Technically, it downloads keys that are needed to open eBooks that you buy. A similar system was employed by the Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader and by most other digital media
products. The activation system for Adobe Reader 6.0 will provide greater flexibility.

Q: Why do I need a Microsoft Passport account?
A: Microsoft Passport is a free account that Adobe PDF eBook users can sign up for through Microsoft. It is one way to identify users as unique individuals online. It enables users to view digitally protected content, like eBooks, on more than one device (for example, one PC or Mac and one PDA).

Q: What is an Adobe ID?
A: An Adobe ID is used by Adobe System's product store. It is another free method of identifying you as a unique individual online.

Q: How many devices can I activate?
A: For Adobe PDF eBooks, you can activate one PC or Mac and one PDA for each user."

The customer has to register with microsoft passport and adobe to use the file. It can only be used on one PC/Mac and one PalmOS. And the computer must be online for activation. The customer can't port it to a laptop they don't use online because they can't register/activate the laptop.

I think you can loan them to a friend

"Q: Can I give or lend my eBooks to someone else?
A: Adobe Reader 6.0 does not include the ability to give or lend an eBook. You can however email an eBook to someone else if the publisher has packaged the eBook for "Superdistribution" (see Superdistribution below).

Q: What is Superdistribution?
A: Superdistribution enables users to exchange PDF eBooks with other users while still protecting the copyright of the publisher. When one person gives an eBook with superdistribution to another user, the second user is taken to a web site where they can obtain permission to view the file. To use the superdistribution feature publishers simply include a URL in the eBook using the Adobe Content Server."

I don't know if Superdistribution will be used.

You can print them

Only from the keyed computer because no other computer can read them.

You can copy&paste from them.

Per customers, only 10 times in 10 days. That's far from copy and paste capability. No one has yet indicated how much can you cut at paste at once.

Poll from rpgnow.com......
What do you DISLIKE the most about a PDF?
Background or border art 12%
No artwork at all 13%
Overly large file sizes 5%
No bookmarks used 20%
Lock-out of cut and paste 35%
Colored text 4%
Shaded boxes or colored background 9%

People want electronic file for what they can do that books can't. DRM reduces that amount.

What I'd really like is better, specific feedback of just what features people feel are missing here so that we can do something about them.

1. Less hassle on the user's part to make publishers feel better. If someone's going to pirate or give stuff to his friends, he's going to do it regardless of DRM. That may mean he just has to jump on a P2P network to do so, but it will be done.

This protection is a "paper tiger" and a massive annoyance to those 70% of customers that don't pirate. You've made their experience of your products less enjoyable, reduced their utility, and basically told them that they have to deal with increased hassle because you're trying to prevent piracy of products that are (more than likely for WW) already available illegally.

2. And of course, lower prices...

Why do you buy PDFs?
They are cheap! 40%
Good resources 33%
Support the publisher 10%
Can't find them in print 18%

For those who have posted about piracy, I submit this poll RPGNow ran for consideration:

Have you received or do you share pay PDFs with others?
No, that is piracy 63%
No, but my friends do 3%
Yes, but only with my game group 26%
Yes if the price is just too high 2%
Yes if I can find/get it 1%
Yes, I never pay for my PDFs 1%
No Comment 4%

So, 30%+ of people publically responded that they commit piracy with RPG pdf files. Sadly, copyright enfringement has become almost as common a crime as speeding and a lot of people feel entitled to do it, or rationalize it. I'll join the poster who pined for more people with a basic understanding of Economics, because it would be nice if more people understood the end economic results piracy has.

RPGnow also had another poll.

What format do you prefer your eProducts in?
PDF 73%
HTML 2%
eBook 0%
Rich Text or Word 1%
Plain text file 0%
PDF & Rick Text 10%
PDF & HTML 7%
PDF, HTML, & Text 7%
Other 0%

You're supporting the group that got 0% by using e-books. The end economic result will probably be less than supporting the 73% that prefer PDFs. But it appears that you've decided that fighting piracy by selling e-books wanted by 0% of the poll-takers will be more fiscally beneficial than not fighting piracy to support the 73% of users (who actually pay for PDFs) who want PDF that don't require registration, keyed machines, and limited printing and cut and paste functions when compared to regular PDFs.

What this means is that you've got around 100% who don't want what your offering, but you're only going to offer it because of the 30% that file-share paid PDFs. We all must remember that a file shared isn't always a lost sale. The actual amount of sales lost is not measurable, but it is certainly less than the number pirated because there are obviously pirates that will never buy a product and there are pirates that eventually buy the product.

If you have a full time job in another field and are publishing rpgs in purely pdf format as a hobby business then great (please don't misconstrue my point below as any sort of attack please); you can feed your kids whether your work gets pirated or not.

If you publish rpgs for a living and the vast predominance of your sales comes from the printed format then you have to find poll results like that quite sobering. When your grocery bill, and your distributor's grocery bills, and your FLGS owner's grocery bills are all getting paid in whole or in part due to your ability to sell printed rpgs then you don't have the (for lack of a better word) luxury to take the laissez faire (sp?) stance on the threat that
digital piracy poses to your livelihood that someone publishing pdfs as a hobby business can take (and post here) when their livelihood is not at stake.

It seems like your saying that by selling a protected file, you're expecting to make more money than by selling an unprotected file through the prevention of piracy. It seems that you think you would lose more money by putting out legal PDFs without "protection" than you're alreadly losing to scanned copies of your books that are currently out there. How is selling an unprotected PDF going to result in less money given that the book's already available for free? It seems like you're offering people a more expensive, less functional, more restricted product than they can get already (because you want to stop them from getting that free copy from Joe Careless) and that's supposed to result in more sales? The DRM adds no value to the end user: it in fact, subtracts value.

Why don't you offer them a fully functional version as opposed to one that's not. Don't you think that would create even more sales? If a restricted-use file generates sales, wouldn't a non-restricted use file generate more sales because it has more value through utility even though it risks the danger of Joe Careless?

If you sell 100 files with protection and that stops 100 pirates, that isn't better than selling 101 files without protection and not stopping any pirates.

All the protections do is piss off the paying customers. We have to listen to the people who buy PDFs, they're the only one's that drivethrurpg.com is selling to. They don't want "protections" they don't want only 10 cut&pastes every 10 days, they don't want to register things, they don't want to hassle with worries about piracy because they're not pirates and they know the protections will not stop, slow, make more difficult, reduce, or prevent piracy. All they do is inconvience the paying customer.

The people we're selling to are the fence sitters, as I've said before. The piracy will not be stopped by using this protection. The incidental pirates (such as Joe Clueless) may be stopped from sharing, but the people he would be sharing with still have the decision, "JC can't give me the file, but it's cool. Should I pay or get it for free?" The protections haven't prevented the piracy because the piracy is independent of the file, it is dependent upon the user.

Which we cannot control.

Joseph Browning
Expeditious Retreat Press