. wrote:But I have a problem with the sheer volume of pirate goods online and would not wish to be the person who put CZ up there. That is my dilema.

. wrote:That doesn't necessarily mean I want to contribute to that, and furthermore, I take pride in the quality of my work, and I wouldn't want to see an increase in the general quality of pirate scans on the internet, because that only encourages it further. If people download poor quality pirate copies, they end up buying what they like for real. People have a tendancy to value what they've worked and paid for, but not what they got for free.



As a sounding board, Acaeum is good, mainly because most of the people who are regulars here have similar concerns and motives as my own. We all collect and want the best we can find for our collections, and we want to protect our investments and prevent the value of that investment from being corroded.

I may take a slightly more pragmatic view of preserving products for the future (by digitizing them), because I do not trust that the rare and uncommon items (particularly those outwith most peoples buying power or scope of interest) will not wholely disappear from the planet in time (clearly CZ:UW is not in this catagory, but much of what I scan may be). I believe it is encumbent on some of us to preserve these items for the future, and digital copies seems more preferable over microfieche, and is the only real alternative.

Example - I used to work in the music scene for my sins, and one of the bands was called Love Decree, an Edinburgh group who had a number one hit with a ditty that was all over Scottish adverts for Tennants Lager, and became the youth/football icon song for one particularly hot summer in Scotland. Looking back some 10 years later, when Soul Seeker was the peer network of choice, I went looking for Love Decree and their song, Something So Real, and it was nowhere. Indeed, there was absolutely no information online at all, and no-one stocking back catalog. Now I knew they'd put out a 7" and a 12" on general release, and a CD Single in very small numbers. It took about 6 months and I tracked down copies on vinyl, had a DJ friend convert them to mp3 and offered it up to fileshare. Lo-and-behold, I do a Google search now and the mp3 file is everywhere. It seems the song is well known and whether Love Decree were instrumental in doing this themselves, or whether people just downloaded my mp3 and then continued to share it, this song is preserved forever (or as forever as you can get).

Now I'm not advocating distribution of pirate PDFs, but more a case of promoting the distribution of backup copies to people who already own products. If I get burgled and my collection goes, or have a fire and everything goes, it would be good to be able to go back online and download everything I bought from RPGNow. They provide a safety net for much valued Abysthor and Rappan Athuk for example.

Someone buys a manuscript for a dungeon for many thousands of dollars. A unique item of great provenence. Should disaster befall that someone's collection, you would like to hope that he could go back to source and say 'I don't suppose you kept a digital copy of that item, did you? Can I have it?'

Personally, I get much more value for money out of buying PDFs than making them, and I buy them whenever I can. The time and effort I put in can only be justified as a hobby or passion. I try to encourage companies to release PDFs, but it is a long hard fight against wild geese and brick walls.

jcp wrote:I assume if this is done that the copyright holder would be contacted for permission first.

. wrote:As far as I am aware (correct me if I'm wrong) we are all permitted to obtain and keep one copy of what we buy for personal use and as a backup should out copy become damaged or destroyed. And as far as I'm aware, no permission is required from the copyright holder to do this. Am I wrong?

Now, if you go to Kinkos and photocopy your purchased copy of CZ:UW as your means of backup, is Kinkos breaking the law by fascilitating the buyer from exercising their rights under the law? Or if he asks his sister, who is not the lawful owner of said copy, to go to Kinkos to make a copy, is she breaking the law?

If not, then surely asking a friend if he can make a digital copy is also not against the law. Ergo, no permission required and perfectly legal.

It only becomes illegal if someone who has no right under the law to a copy is given a copy, but I would be most interested in your take on this, as it is a very intricate matter.


Aside, a digital copy with OCR in the hands of Trigee would fascilitate easier republication. So there is an upside, but I'm not gonna go there, as I have a vested interest in keeping the CZ:UW price as high as possible. I'm still sitting on a cases and a half of these babies.

You're right. The only people who ever get on their high horse about it are people with no vested interest at all.

I purchase the right to own the product forever.

jcp wrote:......Case in point is the 2nd trial of the woman in MN who was found guilty yesterday of willfull copyright infringement for downloading 24 songs resulting in a fine of $1.92 million dollars.  ....

The recording companies accused Thomas-Rasset of offering 1,700 songs on Kazaa as of February 2005, before the company became a legal music subscription service following a settlement with entertainment companies. For simplicity's sake the music industry tried to prove only 24 infringements.