Wizards of the Coast: FAIL

So it turns out that Wizards of the Coast are miffed at the lack of sales for their latest PHB2.

And understandably so. I mean, it's not as if they made it in to the new york times best sellers list or anything.

Oh, wait. They did? Damn.

Okay, well, at least this will stop piracy for good. After all, without the PDFs being made available, piracy won't be possible any more.

Ah, hang on. People used to pirate PDFs long before they were made available online? Right.

Well, on the plus side, at least they're keeping things in moderation. After all, it's not as if they've stopped all PDF resellers from selling their products that have already been pirated, is it?

Oh, they did that too? Damn.

Let's get this straight. Wizards of the Coast, in an effort to stop piracy, have asked all online retailers to immediately stop selling legitimate PDFs of their products. In spite of the fact that whatever products were currently for sale have already been pirated. In spite of the fact that since they are (apparently) on bittorrent, there is no conceivable way that pirates can be stopped. In their effort to stop piracy, they have removed the only legitimate means for buying PDFs of their products. PDFs which are, while not essential, are pretty damn useful for playing D&D with - by removing the requirement for people to carry around a small library of books. They have, in a single move, discouraged anyone from buying more books then they can carry, as opposed to more books than they can fit on their laptops.

And worst of all, this move does absolutely nothing against the ability of a pirate to buy a copy of the book and scan it by hand. Except possibly the extra hassle of having to manually scan a book as opposed to just buying the PDF.

WOTC: Failing to stop piracy by pissing off their customers, since 2009.

Congrats, Wizards. I'm sure you'll succeed where the MPAA failed. And where the RIAA failed. And where the software industry failed.