Piracy and Intellectual Property Law (and a Little Bit About Good Publicity)
I know, it's boring. Time for one of my monologueish rants about stuff you already know. But I think it's important.
As an aspiring writer, I have a stake in this little legal war. A very real one. And, you know what? Both extremes are wrong, though I've never felt so strongly about that until yesterday evening.
I recently received word that Wizards of the Coast, the world's largest tabletop RPG producer best known for its Dungeons & Dragons license, has ordered that all PDF sales of its products come to an end. This has got to be one of the worst PR decisions made by the company in years and has already enflamed nearly every relevant board into a storm of rage. And it's not just bad publicity. It's bad business.
Supposedly, the decision, which means that the only way to acquire any WotC products is to buy them in print, is to prevent piracy. I can kind of see that. After all, the logic goes I imagine that pirates are copying legally obtained PDFs and selling them over the web. And there's certainly been a problem with this. I imagine the big heads at WotC (or its parent company Hasbro) imagined that by cutting off the legal supply route of online content, they'd be shutting down a major outlet for pirates. After all, the pirates have to have obtained legal copies somewhere along the line... right?
But that's just stupid. That imagines, for the sake of argument, that pirates are incapable of committing piracy the old fashioned way - via scanning. Books are pirated all the time that aren't even legally available in online form. How on earth does WotC imagine that shutting down the one legal avenue for online content is going to help them? If anything, I'd predict that, while it might slow piracy in the short term (I imagine WotC's right that legitimate avenues are sometimes a major source for pirated content) it will probably encourage it in the long term, particularly in regards to stuff, like old material published by TSR that isn't even available in print anymore.
The really ironic thing is that WotC is a geekish company. They're not like the music record companies or the film industry tycoons who've made similar mistakes in the past. It's a company founded by geeks, for geeks. So surely they should understand some of this at some level. Maybe they do. Maybe they don't care. Maybe Hasbro forced them into it. It doesn't really matter. Whatever the cause, WotC is doing something incredibly stupid that has, from all accounts, already cost them several customers - even though the decision was made just yesterday.
Here's the sad thing. I completely empathize and sympathize with WotC. I do not sympathize with the pirates. Not one bit. I don't care whether you're low on funds and can't pay for all that stuff you want. Guess what? I've been there too. Doesn't mean stealing what you want is right. Entertainment is a luxury, a gift provided by the creator for you. it is not a necessity, it is not a natural right. Artists put their heart and soul into creating their works, put time and money that could have been spent doing something else that might have been more immediately rewarding. They could have spent that money and time on someone else's work. Instead, they spent it on you, their audience, their intended viewer/listener/reader. And not compensating them for it is a slap in the face.
So, you see, I really, really want to side with WotC here. I really, really want to say, "hey, good job fighting the good fight" or "damn straight, you ought to shut down an avenue for pirates." But the fact is this: this move will do far more harm for WotC (and all artists by extension)'s job than it would do good. What WotC is doing is throwing the virtuous in with the criminal. It doesn't matter if you've pirated WotC's works or not. It doesn't matter if you've broken the law or just wanted to get an out-of-print work legitimately. It doesn't matter if you're a black market supplier of stolen art or a guy who just wants to keep all of your source material in one folder. You're all being punished. You're all being criminalized. That's WotC's method.
The funny thing is, we've seen this before, again and again. You would think that WotC might have caught on to the fact that intrusive DRM for corporations like EA is hurting their business or that musicians only really started to recover from piracy when they started offering their music over legitimate channels like Amazon.com or iTunes. But somehow they've missed these simple facts, somehow they'd decided that humans are innately criminals and the only way to get them to behave it to beat them repeatedly over the head and wage total war.
But this is counterproductive because people act the way that you expect them to. If you automatically and blanketly treat your entire customer base like criminals, they're going to feel like you don't deserve their money. They're going to start actually becoming criminals. I guarantee you people will turn to piracy just to spite WotC.
What WotC should have done instead, and what innovative companies like MTV Networks and Valve have done - what WotC was doing until yesterday. That is, to assume the majority of your customers are loyal and paying and treat them nicely as a result. Provide an alternative: a cheap and efficient alternative that directly competes with piracy. Sure, it's not likely that you can directly compete with the prices pirates offer - that's a fact of life. But by treating your customers nicely and offering them a legitimate alternative, you earn good will and from that good will, you earn loyalty. But WotC seems to have forgotten that, as did EA last year when they decided to burden Mass Effect and Spore with some of the most intrusive DRM policies software has to offer. That was a mistake. This is too.
Fighting piracy (which, by the way, like petty theft and murder isn't likely to disappear anytime soon) doesn't mean one has to be an ass. I applauded when I heard WotC go after several sites that were illegally distributing their content. I applaud when I hear similar stories. But policies like this, by large, punish more good people than they do bad people. And they make the pirates look like a persecuted minority. So wizen up, IP-holders. This is not how you fight.
On the other hand of the extreme, I have some serious reservations about Creative Commons, which I think gives too much leeway in control over an IP. Far as I'm concerned, the creator owns their IP unless they license it out. End of subject. But one of the key things about having power over something is learning how not to abuse that power. And it is obvious that some have still not learned that lesson.
Nivenus out.
In more happy news, by the way, it appears that Paramount gave a surprise treat for a crowd of Star Trek fans yesterday. They advertised an event in Austin, Texas as a 10-minute preview of the film coupled with a showing of The Wrath of Khan. In reality, it turned out to be a full-blown premiere of the film hosted by Leonard Nimoy just hours before the official premiere.
Way to go, Paramount. That's how to generate good publicity.
As an aspiring writer, I have a stake in this little legal war. A very real one. And, you know what? Both extremes are wrong, though I've never felt so strongly about that until yesterday evening.
I recently received word that Wizards of the Coast, the world's largest tabletop RPG producer best known for its Dungeons & Dragons license, has ordered that all PDF sales of its products come to an end. This has got to be one of the worst PR decisions made by the company in years and has already enflamed nearly every relevant board into a storm of rage. And it's not just bad publicity. It's bad business.
Supposedly, the decision, which means that the only way to acquire any WotC products is to buy them in print, is to prevent piracy. I can kind of see that. After all, the logic goes I imagine that pirates are copying legally obtained PDFs and selling them over the web. And there's certainly been a problem with this. I imagine the big heads at WotC (or its parent company Hasbro) imagined that by cutting off the legal supply route of online content, they'd be shutting down a major outlet for pirates. After all, the pirates have to have obtained legal copies somewhere along the line... right?
But that's just stupid. That imagines, for the sake of argument, that pirates are incapable of committing piracy the old fashioned way - via scanning. Books are pirated all the time that aren't even legally available in online form. How on earth does WotC imagine that shutting down the one legal avenue for online content is going to help them? If anything, I'd predict that, while it might slow piracy in the short term (I imagine WotC's right that legitimate avenues are sometimes a major source for pirated content) it will probably encourage it in the long term, particularly in regards to stuff, like old material published by TSR that isn't even available in print anymore.
The really ironic thing is that WotC is a geekish company. They're not like the music record companies or the film industry tycoons who've made similar mistakes in the past. It's a company founded by geeks, for geeks. So surely they should understand some of this at some level. Maybe they do. Maybe they don't care. Maybe Hasbro forced them into it. It doesn't really matter. Whatever the cause, WotC is doing something incredibly stupid that has, from all accounts, already cost them several customers - even though the decision was made just yesterday.
Here's the sad thing. I completely empathize and sympathize with WotC. I do not sympathize with the pirates. Not one bit. I don't care whether you're low on funds and can't pay for all that stuff you want. Guess what? I've been there too. Doesn't mean stealing what you want is right. Entertainment is a luxury, a gift provided by the creator for you. it is not a necessity, it is not a natural right. Artists put their heart and soul into creating their works, put time and money that could have been spent doing something else that might have been more immediately rewarding. They could have spent that money and time on someone else's work. Instead, they spent it on you, their audience, their intended viewer/listener/reader. And not compensating them for it is a slap in the face.
So, you see, I really, really want to side with WotC here. I really, really want to say, "hey, good job fighting the good fight" or "damn straight, you ought to shut down an avenue for pirates." But the fact is this: this move will do far more harm for WotC (and all artists by extension)'s job than it would do good. What WotC is doing is throwing the virtuous in with the criminal. It doesn't matter if you've pirated WotC's works or not. It doesn't matter if you've broken the law or just wanted to get an out-of-print work legitimately. It doesn't matter if you're a black market supplier of stolen art or a guy who just wants to keep all of your source material in one folder. You're all being punished. You're all being criminalized. That's WotC's method.
The funny thing is, we've seen this before, again and again. You would think that WotC might have caught on to the fact that intrusive DRM for corporations like EA is hurting their business or that musicians only really started to recover from piracy when they started offering their music over legitimate channels like Amazon.com or iTunes. But somehow they've missed these simple facts, somehow they'd decided that humans are innately criminals and the only way to get them to behave it to beat them repeatedly over the head and wage total war.
But this is counterproductive because people act the way that you expect them to. If you automatically and blanketly treat your entire customer base like criminals, they're going to feel like you don't deserve their money. They're going to start actually becoming criminals. I guarantee you people will turn to piracy just to spite WotC.
What WotC should have done instead, and what innovative companies like MTV Networks and Valve have done - what WotC was doing until yesterday. That is, to assume the majority of your customers are loyal and paying and treat them nicely as a result. Provide an alternative: a cheap and efficient alternative that directly competes with piracy. Sure, it's not likely that you can directly compete with the prices pirates offer - that's a fact of life. But by treating your customers nicely and offering them a legitimate alternative, you earn good will and from that good will, you earn loyalty. But WotC seems to have forgotten that, as did EA last year when they decided to burden Mass Effect and Spore with some of the most intrusive DRM policies software has to offer. That was a mistake. This is too.
Fighting piracy (which, by the way, like petty theft and murder isn't likely to disappear anytime soon) doesn't mean one has to be an ass. I applauded when I heard WotC go after several sites that were illegally distributing their content. I applaud when I hear similar stories. But policies like this, by large, punish more good people than they do bad people. And they make the pirates look like a persecuted minority. So wizen up, IP-holders. This is not how you fight.
On the other hand of the extreme, I have some serious reservations about Creative Commons, which I think gives too much leeway in control over an IP. Far as I'm concerned, the creator owns their IP unless they license it out. End of subject. But one of the key things about having power over something is learning how not to abuse that power. And it is obvious that some have still not learned that lesson.
Nivenus out.
In more happy news, by the way, it appears that Paramount gave a surprise treat for a crowd of Star Trek fans yesterday. They advertised an event in Austin, Texas as a 10-minute preview of the film coupled with a showing of The Wrath of Khan. In reality, it turned out to be a full-blown premiere of the film hosted by Leonard Nimoy just hours before the official premiere.
Way to go, Paramount. That's how to generate good publicity.