Electronic ASLRB...?

Chas Argent

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UXB said:
One could argue that the rules aren't any good without the counters and
maps. So why not make the rules freely available and only charge for the
maps and counters?

I would imagine that the whole pricing scheme would be changed. With the
overhead of printing paper copies of the rulebook gone, all the profit would
be in the modules.
It would also save space in a warehouse, which is not cheap.
 

Legion

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My back-up copy of the rules was created with Finereader - an admirable program as you can scan and OCR 100 pages at once if you so desire.

I use hyperlinks between rules and i have an expanding index page (add ne definitions or rules as required). I can use the search function to find the rule i require and the hyperlink function to jump to it... very efficient, very nice and it keeps my tattered 20year old RB.V1 in recognisable condition! :love:

Still i think that MMP could do it better, and i would buy it (if only to support the game) if they did.
 

WaterRabbit

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On copy protection

One has to be careful about copy protection. Many copy protection schemes actually violate copyright law. This looks like one of them. Consumers have the right of resale. If you sell a copy of the ASLRB to me, I have the right to resell it on e-bay at some later date. What I can't do is buy one copy and turn around and sell multiple copies.

Any viable copy protection scheme has to protect the IP rights of the creator and the rights of the consumer.

The software industry tries to get around this through by licensing the software. I don't know if anyone has challenged this in court.

The original term for a copyright was 14 years (in the US anyways). Unfortunately,
resellers of copyright (not creators) material have pressured Congress to keep extending copyrights – mainly it seems to protect Mickey Mouse. :)

The side effect of this has been to create a culture of “piracy” with regards to IP. Thomas Babington MacAuley predicted the consequences of this in 1841. Here is the link if you are interested. http://yarchive.net/macaulay/copyright.html
 

Psuderman

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IP Copyright

Thanks for that link - a very interesting view of things.

I don't think that the case stated is 100% applicable to IP rights today, but some ideas definitely still apply. The concept of copyright as monopoly is quite a fascinating comparison. Also of interest is the idea of reward - making sure that the writer or writers who developed the IP get the reward, rather than the copyright holder, who may be an entirely different entity altogether.

Cheers,

Paul
 

morrigu

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ASLRBv2

Besides. I only have the ASLRBv1 as online version.
Scanning the ASLRBv2 (and then proofreading it) would take weeks to complete - :nervous: - which is a bit frustrating as I already scanned and edited ASLRBv1.
 
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Walki

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I also used ABBY Fine Reader to OCR my e-aslrb. Perl to create web pages from the txt source. Still proofing (half way thru Chapter G). I've got Chaps A-F finished, with all the pictures created with VASL artwork. HTML, hyperlinked. One html file per Chapter. I plan on making animated gif for examples that warrant it.

What is so ridiculous about this whole thing, is look at all the duplication of effort, just to get a copy of what all of us own. Sure, it's a good reason to read the rulebook, but the sheer waste of manhours we've all put in, could have been used to create a really super electronic rulebook, if the copyright rules weren't so pissy.
 

zgrose

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Walki said:
I also used ABBY Fine Reader to OCR my e-aslrb. Perl to create web pages from the txt source. Still proofing (half way thru Chapter G). I've got Chaps A-F finished, with all the pictures created with VASL artwork. HTML, hyperlinked. One html file per Chapter. I plan on making animated gif for examples that warrant it.

What is so ridiculous about this whole thing, is look at all the duplication of effort, just to get a copy of what all of us own. Sure, it's a good reason to read the rulebook, but the sheer waste of manhours we've all put in, could have been used to create a really super electronic rulebook, if the copyright rules weren't so pissy.
You are doing *far* more than just copying. And if you truly thought it was a waste of time, I don't think you would've done it.

We should hold a secret eRuleBook gathering at an undisclosed location so others can ooh and ahh at the collective effort of all these efforts and see who has the coolest version. :D
 
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purdyrc

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UXB said:
Finally, an eBook requires a reader. What formats of readers will be
supported? Palm? Tablet? PC/Laptop? I certainly don't want to have to
refer to my PC every time I'm playing ASL. I don't own a PalmPilot. Thus
if the ASLRB is in electronic format, youll have to give the option of a
printed copy as well, otherwise your already-small market gets even smaller.
Brain implant seems the only logical solution. It might actually help me remember and keep straight all those "firings" . Prep fire, bounding fire, defensive fire, defensive first fire, defensive final fire, advancing fire, intensive fire, point-blank fire, triple point-blank fire...did I forget any? Damn implant!

- Rick
 

Walki

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zgrose said:
You are doing *far* more than just copying. And if you truly thought it was a waste of time, I don't think you would've done it.

We should hold a secret eRuleBook gathering at an undisclosed location so others can ooh and ahh at the collective effort of all these efforts and see who has the coolest version. :D
I agree it's far more than copying and that it's a good use of time, but we are just duplicating so much effort. All the scanning, OCRing, proofing, etc. could have been used to make a rulebook far superior to the one we have each made individually.

I'd like to see each others works myself. Perhaps we could post screenshots at an undisclosed location.

http://www.walki.org/img/aslrb_screen.jpg
 

Walki

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purdyrc said:
Brain implant seems the only logical solution. It might actually help me remember and keep straight all those "firings" . Prep fire, bounding fire, defensive fire, defensive first fire, defensive final fire, advancing fire, intensive fire, point-blank fire, triple point-blank fire...did I forget any? Damn implant!

- Rick
Brain Implants, I can't wait to explain to my wife why I need to have surgery. "Oh, no, it's not for ASL, it'll help me remember your mother's birthday". :) That's another couple of thousand on the world's most expensive board game! :)

-Roger
 

Dr Zaius

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Fascinating debate. Thanks for the link.

I found the concluding statement to be of particular interest.

Thomas Babington Macaulay said:
I am so sensible, Sir, of the kindness with which the House has listened to me, that I will not detain you longer. I will only say this, that if the measure before us should pass, and should produce one-tenth part of the evil which it is calculated to produce, and which I fully expect it to produce, there will soon be a remedy, though of a very objectionable kind. Just as the absurd acts which prohibited the sale of game were virtually repealed by the poacher, just as many absurd revenue acts have been virtually repealed by the smuggler, so will this law be virtually repealed by piratical booksellers. At present the holder of copyright has the public feeling on his side. Those who invade copyright are regarded as knaves who take the bread out of the mouths of deserving men. Everybody is well pleased to see them restrained by the law, and compelled to refund their ill-gotten gains. No tradesman of good repute will have anything to do with such disgraceful transactions. Pass this law: and that feeling is at an end. Men very different from the present race of piratical booksellers will soon infringe this intolerable monopoly. Great masses of capital will be constantly employed in the violation of the law. Every art will be employed to evade legal pursuit; and the whole nation will be in the plot. On which side indeed should the public sympathy be when the question is whether some book as popular as Robinson Crusoe, or the Pilgrim's Progress, shall be in every cottage, or whether it shall be confined to the libraries of the rich for the advantage of the great-grandson of a bookseller who, a hundred years before, drove a hard bargain for the copyright with the author when in great distress? Remember too that, when once it ceases to be considered as wrong and discreditable to invade literary property, no person can say where the invasion will stop. The public seldom makes nice distinctions. The wholesome copyright which now exists will share in the disgrace and danger of the new copyright which you are about to create. And you will find that, in attempting to impose unreasonable restraints on the reprinting of the works of the dead, you have, to a great extent, annulled those restraints which now prevent men from pillaging and defrauding the living. If I saw, Sir, any probability that this bill could be so amended in the Committee that my objections might be removed, I would not divide the House in this stage. But I am so fully convinced that no alteration which would not seem insupportable to my honourable and learned friend, could render his measure supportable to me, that I must move, though with regret, that this bill be read a second time this day six months.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, in essence, predicted that passing very strong laws for copyright protection would directly lead to a situation where piracy would become the norm. To put it simply, he argues that copyright protection amounts to a monopoly and that the public will not tolerate such monopolies for long. He predicts that the public as a whole will ultimately reject copyrights by their actions even if they approve of them in theory.

His prediction seems to mirror exactly what has come to pass with regards to modern property, particularly digital property. Almost all of us would agree that an author has rights to his/her intellectual property, yet is there anyone here who can honestly say they have never used any kind of CD or printed material? I do not make it a habit, but I will not claim I have never ever used such a CD.

Macaulay further argues that vast sums of money and effort will be tied up in enforcing such copyrights and that even vaster sums will be tied up in finding ways around them. In short, he argues that copyright protection is a noble concept, but ultimately does more damage than good in the long run.
 

Hams

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To get a screenshot of the active window press ALT + Print Screen together or to get a complete screenshot press CTRL + Print Screen then paste into your preferred application.

That should do the trick if not let me know ;) .
 

GJK

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I've been working on converting mine into a Windows help file, which is fully indexed and keyword searchable.

Screenshot
 

purdyrc

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Walki said:
I agree it's far more than copying and that it's a good use of time, but we are just duplicating so much effort. All the scanning, OCRing, proofing, etc. could have been used to make a rulebook far superior to the one we have each made individually.

I'd like to see each others works myself. Perhaps we could post screenshots at an undisclosed location.

http://www.walki.org/img/aslrb_screen.jpg
You devious man! Now I must have an e-copy of the rulebook! I was content to just go through life with my paper copy, but now...

Thanks for ruining everything!

Seriously though, that looks very, very sharp! Great job! (Unofficially, of course ;) ).

- Rick
 

Loquitor

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I feel like the little hungry child in a Sally Struthers infomercial watching her eat a turkey leg


I want.....but I feel MMP will never make an EASLRB :cry:
 

zgrose

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I see (Screenshot 4) that you haven't incorporated the Errata yet. :D
 

Brad Knoll

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I seen a great HTML rulebook with all the pictures and everything. The guy took like 9 months of steady work to do it but it looks great.
 
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