 Bull's Origins' Report, extract from ShadowRN mailing list |
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 Jul 18 2004, 02:51 AM
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#26
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Target  Group: Members Posts: 37 Joined: 27-January 04 Member No.: 6,028  |
I think FanPro has an exlcusive arangement with White Wolf to distribute through drivethrurpg. So that'd mean DRM.
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Jul 18 2004, 03:23 AM
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#27
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 293 Joined: 27-January 03 From: Kentucky, USA Member No.: 3,958 |
I don't give a damn about DRM. I just want those classic books as PDFs. :D
Honestly, the DRM is a non-issue for my uses. I don't print PDFs (or only print a dozen or so pages that I need), rarely copy from them, and love the searchability. I'd love to see Shadowrun on DTRPG. |
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Jul 18 2004, 03:33 AM
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#28
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Target Group: Members Posts: 37 Joined: 27-January 04 Member No.: 6,028 |
Sadly, DRM is an issue for me. So I cannot buy them. :(
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Jul 18 2004, 05:24 AM
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#29
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Target Group: Members Posts: 81 Joined: 13-July 04 Member No.: 6,475 |
only changed my posts crimsondude2.0 after the board tried sending spyware my way ......blocked it thankfully but thought it would be for the best if I changed my posts.;)
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Jul 18 2004, 05:27 AM
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#30
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Prime Runner Group: Retired Admins Posts: 3,929 Joined: 26-February 02 From: .ca Member No.: 51 |
Pardon? Our services do not attempt to foist any spy or malware onto anyone. |
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Jul 18 2004, 05:31 AM
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#31
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Target Group: Members Posts: 81 Joined: 13-July 04 Member No.: 6,475 |
my sincerest apologies then.
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Jul 18 2004, 10:47 PM
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#32
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 403 Joined: 27-August 02 From: Scotland Member No.: 3,175 |
Okay so what's DRM, what's bad about it/them and why would that affect the buying of pdfs?
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Jul 18 2004, 10:53 PM
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#33
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Prime Runner Group: Retired Admins Posts: 3,929 Joined: 26-February 02 From: .ca Member No.: 51 |
DRM, as implemented by DriveThruRPG.com, requires you to be using Acrobat Reader 6. When you first buy a file, you need to go online and create an account with Adobe [You can either use a general purpose adobe.com account, or link it to a Microsoft Passport account]. If you backup your files or wish to transfer them to another computer, you'll also need to go online and activate that computer with your account; this process takes a couple of minutes. Once a computer is activated, it does not need to be activated again [unless you reinstall your OS.]
There is a limit of 6 computers that can be activated to your account at any one time, but you can phone a 1-800 number at Adobe and deactivate machines. DTRPG has a FAQ and further documentation on these matters. |
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Jul 18 2004, 11:13 PM
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#34
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 403 Joined: 27-August 02 From: Scotland Member No.: 3,175 |
Ah, thanks for that Adam. Sounds a bit like Steam for Counter-Strike actually. A bit annoying (in my personal opinion), but I suppose it's useful to prevent straight forward piracy.
Anyway by the sound of what they say in thos FAQs the pdf books typically sell for 50% of the retail price, if more than 6 months old. I guess I can live with that. You can even print them out and have it all to hand if you like. Useful for all those out of print books. |
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Jul 18 2004, 11:13 PM
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#35
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Traumatizing players since 1992 Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,282 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Las Vegas, NV Member No.: 220 |
Er can books be transferred to a pocket PC device? If not, then there's no point to me buying this as I own the books, and this just dramatically limits how I can use them versus paperback copies, with the exception of keyword searches and then only if I'm sitting in front of a PC.
Heck, will these even let me copy and paste text for forum threads instead of having to retype what I'm reading manually? EDIT: the FAQ says I can copy and paste text, and print book sections. so that's not so bad, still kind of iffy on the Pocket PC copy, but we'll see. EDIT EDIT: Nifty! they do offer it for Pocket PC. Expect me to buy a freaking WAD of these books. Woohoo!. This will get a goodly amount of business from me! EDIT EDIT EDIT: Jesus H tapdancing Christ. it's an 8 meg installer for Pocket PC. That's OBSCENE. I'm still going to use it though. :D |
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Jul 18 2004, 11:20 PM
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#36
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 403 Joined: 27-August 02 From: Scotland Member No.: 3,175 |
From what the FAQ says it sounds like you can copy and paste a certain amout of text each day (10 pages I think).
It'd be useful for me as I don't own a lot of the older books, and I don't really fancy spending a great deal of my time looking for them on eBay etc. But all these restrictions could be mildly off putting to say the least. Another question.. I'm not saying I'm planning to do this, but couldn't someone just download the pdf, print it out, and then scan it back in again using OCR? Then they'd have a text document with the contents of the book in it and could copy and paste, transfer, upload, sell, do what they like with it. Seems like kinda an easy way round things. If you don't mind using up a couple of hundred pages of paper and some of your spare time that is... EDIT: Eh, started typing before all your edits there but it looks like you've answered all your own questions now. Is there actually any need for the rest of us to be on this forum, or should we just leave you to it? ;) |
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Jul 18 2004, 11:24 PM
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#37
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Traumatizing players since 1992 Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,282 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Las Vegas, NV Member No.: 220 |
Well someone could do that with the physical book too by cutting off the spine and scanning it, so that's actually MORE complicated your way, either way no loss of rights or increased risk for them.
Sorry, I had a Knee Jerk Reaction then actually Read the FAQ. And it's 10 selections or pages of text every 10 days, just FYI. I should have read BEFORE I replied. :D
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Jul 18 2004, 11:34 PM
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#38
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 403 Joined: 27-August 02 From: Scotland Member No.: 3,175 |
They could indeed. But if I was a budding software pirate I think I'd rather spend half the list price on an electronic copy of the book and do the above, and still have the electronic file intact. Rather that than pay twice as much and do quite a lot of damage to the (perhaps rather valuable) original copy I'd bought. Anyway a bit of an unnecessary debate I suppose since I've no need or desire to do either, but it just came to mind. I guess I'll be watching this space to see if/what they'll publish online and how much it'll cost, as well as any restrictions there'll be. |
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Jul 18 2004, 11:37 PM
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#39
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Traumatizing players since 1992 Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,282 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Las Vegas, NV Member No.: 220 |
If the price is reasonable i'll be picking up all core rulebooks and non-adventure suplements.
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Jul 19 2004, 09:16 AM
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#40
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 515 Joined: 10-April 04 From: Chicago, IL...Ich vermisse Deutschland. Member No.: 6,230 |
According to someone at the PEGinc forums, there's a way around that restriction if you reuse a pdf writer and send the DRM file through that. Personally, I'd rather get it from RPGnow.com, mostly because I can have a copy on the computer and burn to cd what I want.
Don |
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Jul 19 2004, 12:12 PM
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#41
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Manus Celer Dei Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 17,008 Joined: 30-December 02 From: Boston Member No.: 3,802 |
That's a good point… unless the DRM is rather sophisticated or excessively restricting, I can think of a trivial way around it.
Does DTRPG do any sort of watermarking or similar? ~J |
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Jul 19 2004, 01:00 PM
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#42
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Prime Runner Group: Retired Admins Posts: 3,929 Joined: 26-February 02 From: .ca Member No.: 51 |
There's no reason you can't do this with files from the DTRPG service. No watermarking, Kagtenshi. |
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Jul 19 2004, 01:46 PM
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#43
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Target Group: Members Posts: 37 Joined: 27-January 04 Member No.: 6,028 |
For all the hassles of DRM, it is embarrassingly easy to get around it. But I don't want to feel like I am doing something wrong by circumventing the protections so I can do with the document what I wish.
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Jul 19 2004, 03:10 PM
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#44
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Old Man Jones Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 4,415 Joined: 26-February 02 From: New York Member No.: 1,699 |
Indeed. I recall seeing that somebody had figured out how to remove the protection less than 12 hours after it was launched. No, I'm not gonna say how. That would be wrong. :D -karma |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 4th January 2025 - 06:09 PM |
Topps, Inc has sole ownership of the names, logo, artwork, marks, photographs, sounds, audio, video and/or any proprietary material used in connection with the game Shadowrun. Topps, Inc has granted permission to the Dumpshock Forums to use such names, logos, artwork, marks and/or any proprietary materials for promotional and informational purposes on its website but does not endorse, and is not affiliated with the Dumpshock Forums in any official capacity whatsoever.