Printing PDFs

[andrea15172]

Hello. I purchased from the store some Pathfinder PDFs books. I'd want to go to a Copy center to print the books at a very low price .

I read that the books are watermarked . I can print them to a copy center (cheap and fast ) or I have to print in my old cranky inkjet printer ?

Thank you .

[Zuxius]

I am not sure how printing goes, as in if they will or won't print it because of your watermark. I speculate if the thing get's massed produced Paizo will learn of it from your watermark and revoke your PDFs. Personally, the gaming laptop is where mine goes. It is a space keeper for sure.

[andrea15172]

I always bought printed materials from stores and fairs ( I live in Italy ) but now the store doesn't import Paizo English books anymore, and also I'm trying to save money .

The printed copy will be only the mine, and there's the fact that English RPG books in Italy have a VERY small market, especially in a small city

[Windjammer]

Andrea, most print&copy shops will certainly check your PDF for being water marked before printing them. That's their way to guarantee they're not printing off someone else's PDFs for you (this infringing some rights). Since it's your name (next to your email address) in Paizo watermarks, you're not in trouble - go ahead.

Also, you're obviously entitled to print off as many copies of a PDF you own as you wish.

[Disenchanter]

From my own, very limited, experience, copy/print shops (in the US) are very iffy about printing PDFs. If you can get them to print it at all, you have to show them a receipt of purchase.

Windjammer wrote:

Also, you're obviously entitled to print off as many copies of a PDF you own as you wish.

Careful with that. That isn't 100% accurate, at least by the letter of US copyright law.

[Andrew Betts]

Usually you're allowed a hard copy. I've never had a problem printing off stuff at Staples. I make combined printouts of the adventure part of the adventure path so that I don't have to keep opening my pathfinders and mess up the spine when my group sits in one place for a long time.

[GreatKhanArtist]

Actually, I've never had a problem with printing, here in Canada. The watermark helps convince my printshop that I do own the property. I also use a small printshop and offer to show them my downloads file on the store PC if they have any concerns. The watermark doesn't show up on the print copy, FYI. (It helps if the printers are gamer-sympathetic, I was surprized to learn that mine are ex-gamers.)

[Krome]

Never had a problem with Office Depot. The print manager there said the watermark shows my ownership.

Also, managed to convert a couple of guys to Pathfinder by letting them look at my printed Pathfinder Society rulebook, and some selected pages from the Beta I wanted printed.

[Treebore the Ruby Lord]

Yeah, basically any time your creating a copy for your own use, within your own home/residence, or at least is kept in your control at all times, your pretty safe from being in violation of law. Now if you have a bunch of copies, and you've given them to others, or your actually selling them, then you have to worry.

A printing place may wish to have you prove ownership, and as previous posters have pointed out, the watermark actually helps you prove your the legal owner. Printing out any sales receipt would just strengthen your proof of ownership.

Primarily the laws are focused on keeping protected works from being distributed in ways that will create financial damage to the legal owners of the material. So as long as your not distributing their materials, for free or profit, your not someone the law is concerned about. They could also choose to go after you for receiving such items too.

So make sure you bought a legally distributed copy, and make sure you don't make and distribute copies, and you can be pretty sure your being a law abiding citizen.

So going and making yourself a copy of a PDF you legally bought is a safe thing to do, just be prepared to prove it so the business can be sure they are being safe too.

It may seem complicated, but its actually pretty simple.

[Digitalelf]

With the couple of PDFs I've had printed, I just referred the printer (in my case, Kinko’s) to the Game License page. They were fine with just that...

-That One Digitalelf Fellow-