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I've got a number of free PDFs on my downloads page, e.g. the Pathfinder Society Guide, Revenge of the Kobold King and the Pathfinder RPG Alpha. All have my details as part of the watermark.
What is Paizo's position regarding people distributing these free downloads, either electronically or in paper format, e.g. a GM printing out the PFS Guide for his whole group (or sending it to them all via e-mail)?
IIRC, Paizo's position is "don't do it." As far as the alpha goes, they would like everyone to register and download their own copy. For a free PDF, that's not that much to ask. I'm not sure but it might even be illegal to distribute them in such a fashion.
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That would be pointless, as the game doesn't really "count" unless the players have accounts, in which case they can get it themselves. And if it doesn't count, you don't need the guide to play.
I don't think it would necessarily be pointless, for example:
- One person in a group has access to cheap, good quality printing, and wants to print a copy out for everyone in his group.
- A prospective PFS GM at a gaming club (sorry, cheap plug) wants to give copies of the PFS Guide out to as many players as possible to drum up interest at the club, telling them to sign up at Paizo.com and create a character if they're interested.
I'm running CotCT at the moment, and it was great being able to give the players in my group a link to the Player's Guide on this site so they could easily download and digest it. If they had to go through the rigmarole of creating an account, putting the product in their basket and going through the checkout just for a free download, I think the more casual members would lose interest.
If Paizo's preference is that people don't share these documents, then I will of course abide by it, but I think there is some value in allowing people to 'spread the word' by distributing them (or even linking directly to them), especially the PFS Guide.
Chief Technical Officer
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As has been pointed out, we offer some free documents as non-watermarked PDFs that require no registration, and we offer other free documents as watermarked PDFs that do require registration. Generally, if something falls into the latter group—like the Pathfinder RPG playtests and the Pathfinder Society Guide—it's because it's important to us that we have a direct relationship with the people who download those documents. Fo example, we want to be able to notify people when those files are updated, and we really don't want people circulating out-of-date versions. We also want to be able to notify people about related stuff, like when the final RPG is available, or when major Pathfinder Society events might happen.
We've done our best to make sure that the registration process is easy and rewarding, and we don't think that it's too much to ask people to go through it so that they can get some pretty nice free stuff.
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i know the feeling Paz
in our discussion group i put the [url=http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/d20mex/]link[/link] for the beta... and since our DM has asked them to download and check their classes in it, i suppose they will have to...
but another person who is is in that group but not in the gaming group... would not check it unless i pass it to him... he as Paz's players feel desinterested if he needs to make an extra effort to check it... even if its so easy... (done twice, at work and at home)
so sometimes desperate measures are needed to get this errant players who might find pathfinder interesting
PS: for the record... no i haven't sent it to him, damn lazy, i still demand that he download himself!
As with all copyrighted material, some limited forms distribution can be considered fair use. I believe (not a copyright lawyer), that sending copies of your Player's Guide/Pathfinder Companion only to the group you game with for that AP (i.e., via e-mail--the PDF is under the 10MB limit of most e-mail servers--and not posting on a web site or in a file-sharing service, with the understanding that redistribution beyond that is a no-no and could get you in trouble) can be considered "fair use," much like photocopying/printing the physical book/PDF for an in-person group.
Any sort of mass or uncontrolled distribution, even of free materials, without the explicit consent of Paizo does violate the fair use clauses of copyright law. To be completely within fair use clauses IIRC, the copies would need to be deleted or returned once the individual/group is no longer playing that AP.