Talk Like a Pirate Day

[beetiger]

"Music swapping shouldn't be illegal. It's not like I'm selling it."

"Microsoft has too damned much money anyway. It's pretty much a moral good to be sending that software around. Here, need a serial number generator?"

"If they don't want that stuff to be scanned and on the Web, they should pursue those sites and have them take it down. I'm just taking what's available to me."

"I just photocopied my GMs copy. I'm only playing in this one campaign, so it doesn't really pay to buy the book."

"I don't need to buy prints from that artist. I can just get his stuff from Elfwood and print it on my own printer. Art should be free! I hear he's full of himself anyway."

"I'll buy this stuff instead of downloading when I have more money. I really will."

Arrr!

Comments

[rowyn]

I think Ottomaton's right, in fact, in the legal sense (though not necessarily in a moral sense.)

To some degree, I think there's even a moral logic to it. If I buy a copy of, say, Monopoly, I can play Monopoly with my group of friends, none of whom also own the game. Similarly, if I buy one copy of a D&D rulebook, I can play it with my group of friends, even if none of them also own the book. Copying it so that it easier for them to play with me is "fair use", the same as lending them the actual book is fair use.

However, for someone I made a copy of the book for to go off and start their own campaign with it, not involving me, would overstep the "fair use" line, at a guess.

All this said ... I would not, personally, copy a gaming book if I intended to play in the game; I'd either buy it or borrow someone else's edition.

In fact, one campaign I was in used a version of Hero System rules so heavily modified that one of the players did an entire electronic rule book, covering the whole game. However, he wouldn't print out or distribute copies of his modified rules for other players unless they'd first bought an edition of Hero System. I thought that was a good way to handle it.

THe interesting point about all of this is that "fair use" -- as long as it's fair --usually favors artists, authors, and other creators. I might not be able to convince a whole gaming group to buy a new game so we could play it, but if I buy one copy for myself and let them use it -- even to the extent of copying it -- that gives the game exposure. And if the players really are fair about the whole "fair use" aspect of it, they may discover that they like it and want to own it for themselves, to play with other people. And so on.

You;ll rarely hear authors complain about libraries lending out their books "for free" either, for much the same reason: they get exposure.

But undeniably, "unfair use" is destructive to creators (I understand the Commodore 64 died, in part, under such widespread piracy that it became impossible for game developers to make money producing games for the platform). Drawing the line between fair and unfair, in both a moral and a legal sense, is problematic.

All that aside: I liked your post, and agree so completely with the general anti-piracy sentiment that I feel rather silly for playing devil's advocate on this issue.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

This was a silly post, and I don't really want to debate fair use here, but I feel compelled to say something.

As a gamer and game developer, I kind of feel this way about it:

If you want to see if you'd like a game, or if you only want to do char creation once and not really refer to the book regularly at all, sure, borrow a copy, and copy out the relevant sections. I lend out books all of the time. If all you really want is the three pages of the elf stats and the writeups for the ten spells your character can cast, go ahead and copy those out. And if it's easier for you to use a marked-up, photocopied, version of a book you own to play the game, keeping your original pristine on the shelf, by all means, go for it.

But in good faith, if what you are doing is copying cover to cover, opening up your copy, taking it home, and using it regularly the same exact way you'd use a purchased gamebook, except that you don't want to pay for it, please reconsider, especially if it's a small-press book.

[rowyn]

Well, as I think I mentioned, I, personally, would buy the book in preference to photocopying any of it. ;) And I find I can still think of more to say, but I'll keep it to myself since you're not looking to discuss this just now anyway. :)

[orb2069.livejournal.com]

I guess I've never run across ANY gaming book that you could copy at even the cheapest $.08/pg copying place and come out ahead of the cover price - Have you?

(Last gaming book I ever copied out of was the AD&D monster manual, mainly because they don't print that version no more.)

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

People copy things at their offices (and don't pay for that either.)

I have zero problem with copying out-of-print stuff. Entirely different topic.