Update: Malhavoc PDFs no longer available at RPGnow (merged)

[RCanning]

I used to impulse purchase PDFs on my computer at work, print them here, put them on my memory stick and then take them home. Work does not allow us to use Acrobat 6 (or anything like DRM) as it is against policy. I have lost my ability to freely print colour copies of the pdfs I purchase.

So... I started calling around print centers here in Melbourne, Australia. Out of 10 phone calls, I found only 1 that would print DRM protected material, and they charge $15 AU (about $9 US) over and above the normal printing cost to do so, and they require me to hand over my username and password to them; with no guarantee that they will get rid of it later. Basically, they will do it if I break the DRM T&Cs.

So PDFs that are protected by DRM are now a lot more expensive than print products, and print products here are VERY expensive (A $20 US book is normally about $55-$65 AU). So all of a sudden, I can't afford RPG books anymore if more publishers go the way Malhavoc have.

This means that for the first time in my life, I will be tempted to look for cracked versions of the books online. I have never done file sharing or P2P before, I have never felt the need. The PDFs were cheap enough for me not to put in the effort. Now they are, so if I see something that I think is worthwhile, I will not impulse buy it anymore; it is physically impossible for me to do so, because I can't download the files at work where I do 99% of my online shopping.

I am a published author. I feel that I should purchase product. But it is being make almost impossible for me to do so. When the AU $ dropped to about $0.55 US, that was given as the reason for a massive increase in book prices. Now the AU $ has gotten back to over $0.70 US, and the prices have not changed. I have talked to the importers here and asked why this is the case, and have been told that the price they pay (in AU$) has not changed with the dollar change; I have got this from multiple sources. International shipping charges make the purcase of books from the US online too expensive also.

The only way I had to get RPG books at a reasonable price was PDF through RPGNow. Anyone who moves to DriveThruRPG has made their product unavailable to me. I hate the fact that just as technology was getting to the point where I could afford to buy RPG products on a regular basis again, policy from the publishers looks like it ruin it all again.

I know I am ranting again. But the more I look into this, the more it seems that the price of RPG suppliments is going to kill the hobby more than anything else.

Richard Canning

 

[rknop]

However, we wouldn't have made the change if we didn't think that they could provide the service our customers require. In fact, if you talk to someone who's actually *used* DriveThru, you'll find that they'll most likely tell you that it was easy, quick, and that customer service (if you need it) is also quick and helpful.

I've used RPGNow.com. (I've purchased a few things there, including some stuff from Malhavoc.)

And, I can tell you that it's easy, quick, painless, and efficient.

So what exactly is it that the move to DriveThru will be providing that your customers require? The "need" to have a less-functional PDF (which some of us, includng myself, aren't even able to use even if we were willing to live with the restrictions) than we used to be able to get?

Monte, please don't try to portray this as a move to "help your customers". It's not clear what the customers get at all out of this. You can explain why it's a good move for you, and why it's not so bad for the customers-- but given how good RPGNow.com is, and given that the PDFs we can buy now at the same price are less functional than the previous ones, it's a bit insulting to expect us to swallow that this is a move that's supposed to be told that this is being done for us.

-Rob

 

[Zaukrie]

Anybody find a privacy statement on the site yet? My phone number is a required field?

I'd like assurance my phone number and e-mail won't be sold or used to call me with offers for stuff I don't want.

Monte, I love your work, and I appreciate that you've participated in this discussion (haven't seen a lot of other publishers here yet), but I think you've temporarily, possibly permanently, lost a customer due to 10 copies per 10 days rule. I'm also not keen at all on a company tracking my usage of their product, one of two reasons I don't have Tivo.

(as always, I reserve the right to spell badly)

 

[Sir Whiskers]

/Still Off Topic/


RED-STARLIGHT FINEST-BREWS
(ELVEN BEER)

Yep, that's what I was talking about. I'll pick up one and give it a try.

BTW, I did check EnWorld for reviews, but only one product was listed and it wasn't one of the Kaiser's Bazaar line. I completely forgot that RPGNow attaches reviews to the products themselves (Oops).

 

[Elephant]

[/font]
Listen up, all you smug software pirates: you have driven Malhavoc into using Digital Rights Management to protect their assets. Next time you are blithely stealing someone's intellectual property, reasoning that 'no one gets hurt', think about everyone on this thread who will be inconvenienced by the shift to DRM.

But you Internet thieves never bother to think about anything other than yourselves, do you?

Please tell me you're being sarcastic.

Please?

 

[darklight]

Though there is currently an increase in the number of pdf's because of more companies releasing pdf's on DriveThru, I fear this could, in the long run, lead to a decrease in the number of pdf's being released. My reasoning is that the whole DRM debacle will likely drive away a lot of potential costumers, which in turn could mean that the companies that have just decided to release DRM-crippled pdf's might think that the number of sales is too low to bother and so will stop releasing pdf's :\

I sincerely hope this will not be the case...

As many others have already stated, DRM will not, in any way diminish piracy, it only punishes the legit costumers. And so many books get pirated even if they are not released as pdf's anyway, so releasing them as non-DRM-crippled pdf's will most likely have very little influence on the number of pirated copies floating in cyberspace.

I wonder if there is additional cost for the publisher associated with DRM? This has been the case with DVD's where the publisher would pay a licence fee to whatever company made the copyprotection software. I distincly remember reading that Warner Brothers had elected not to spend the extra 2 cent per dvd when releasing Matrix: Reloaded, figuring it would not be worth it, since it wouldn't stop piracy anyway and selling millions of copies, 2 cent per copy is a substantial amount.

Oh, a site note: according to Danish law, it is perfectly legal to make a personal copy of any copyrighted work, even including books or cd's you loan from the library, since the authors/artist get money for their work just being at the library. (Not that this has much to do with the discussion.)

darklight

 

[Cernunnos]

Hate to say this, but if you think this is going to stop piracy, you are sadly mistaken.
You can use this little program (http://www.elcomsoft.com/apdfpr.html) and if even one person who has this program has a password, you can make an un-passworded copy and dissemminate it. And if they don't have a password, theoretcially they could brute-force it (granted, this could take a few years of computing time).
Granted, at the very least its going to slow it down...

 

[Funksaw]

Gimme a break.

So a store with videocameras and other security is also treating all its customers like potential criminals?

Give ME a break.

A store with videocameras and other security - in the store - is not treating it's customers like potential criminals.

A store with videocameras that follow you home after you've purchased the product, is.

 

[Henry]

You can use this little program (http://www.elcomsoft.com/apdfpr.html) and if even one person who has this program has a password, you can make an un-passworded copy and dissemminate it.

Elcomsoft's program does not disable DRM security, I believe. Also, a couple of users in this thread have already mentioned that cracks for DRM's are available (NO ONE POST DRM CRACKS IN THIS THREAD, PLEASE - they would be removed), so it's not the hardest thing to find with a google search and a creative mind.

However, 99% of purchasers of PDF's aren't going to go looking for cracks for them because they want to do the right thing, or have problems involving their user platforms that cannot be solved so easily.

 

[Terramotus]

You know, when I first read about this, I was pretty disappointed, but I had planned to continue purchasing Malhavoc products in print form. After all, I've been a big fan for a long time and was planning on running an AU campaign after my current one wraps up. I'll just avoid the format I don't like. After reading Monte's Line of Sight about this, I'm just plain angry, and any enthusiasm I had for his products has drained away.

I simply cannot find a way to understand his attitude. There is absolutely not one single thing I gain through this shift with regard to Malhavoc Press products. I honestly don't care if this company has good customer service because in six months if it goes under or is scrapped my purchase is useless. I find DRM to be insulting, and this kind is particularly odious, as it removes many of the advantages of the medium. Piracy is indeed a problem in the digital age, but I resent the solution being taken out of my hide, so to speak. I wouldn't buy the same book in print form if it had a chip inside that wouldn't let me open it if I were gaming at a friend's house either.

The out of print stuff he mentions is nice to see, I suppose, but what I always saw as one of the cooler aspects of PDFs is that many of the difficulties in distribution were simplified for the publisher and the savings were passed on to the consumer. In many cases this is not true with the books available on DriveThruRPG - the print versions are near the same price. Yes, I'm sure that in this context, with the same prices and distribution difficulties removed, a publisher could indeed see this as the "next big thing".

But as far as Malhavoc products are concerned, this is not "cool". It's simply another a huge hurdle for customers to jump over, one which I'm not interested in jumping. The big thing that's missing for me is the reasoning involved. If this were a contractual thing, that's fine. I can live with that. If there were problems with RPGNow, I could live with that. He needn't toe the company line so enthusiastically, but I could still live with that.

If I take him at his word, however, I am forced to conclude that he essentially sees putting his customers through this as a good thing. If that's the way you feel about my patronage, fine. I'll take my business elsewhere. I guess that cool little company I thought was different from the others isn't so different at all.