"Worlds" & "Mirror Universe" PDFs Availability

[Markraven]

Have you tried sending a email to DECIPHER? Maybe they might be willing to send you the files if you can get DrivethruRPG (or whereever you got them) to confirm your purchase of them.

It be worth a try; all they can say is "no".

[tonyg]

I dwouldn't expect any results from Decipher.

The problem is, once thier liscence expired, they are no longer able to sell the files legally. It they did, they would be selling Star Trek stuff without a liscence and subject of a lawsuit by whoever owns the Trek franchise these days (CBS, Viacom, Paramount, Paramount PIctures, the Illuminatti?)
With a hard copy it is usually okay to sell off stock as it was prinited while the agreement was in effect (plus it keeps book and gaming stores from being left holdinbg the bag every time a liscene expires), but with an electronic book, there is no stock.

THis is one of the flaws of the DMCA and the new laws. It used to be that when you bought something, you "owned" your copy of the product and could do what you wanted with it. Now, it has been changed so that you don't own anything.

At this point the chances of getting a legal copy of any Decipher PDF is pretty slim.
So it does sort of encourage fans of a defunct RPG to resort to other means. Especially since Hard Drives crash, files get corrupted, CDs go bad, and accidents do happen.

I think that someone who purchased the book should be able to get a copy from another purchaser, but the law doesn't work that way.

.

[Phoenix]

On PDF files, if the copy was registered with Decipher while the licensing was intact then the copy goes bad (HD crash, corrupted, defunct disk, etc...) you should be able to present your registration number or e-paper work or what ever verification they gave you back to Decipher for an updated/new copy or the PDF.
This is not the same as selling the original, there for should be allowed – depending on the wording and nature of the license.

[tonyg]

Should be able to., but that is not how the law is written.

On a similar note, it should be okay to buy someone else's computer and transfer ownship of the PDF files on it, the way one used to be able to transfer ownsership of software.

But, the companies that lobbied for and pushed through the new Didgital copywrite laws pretty much stamped out all of that.



Personally, I'd have no moral problem with seeing someone's puchase order and sending them a copy of the PDF. It would be very easy to do, but there are legal problems. Paramount (or whomever) could take action, if they found out about it, and decided to do so.

Realistically, no one would know unless said copy got passed around on the internet and a copy popped up in front of someone ihnvloved with Trek. But legally the material is dead and gone, unless someone is lucky enough to still have it.

[K.G. Carlson]

Well, it looks like I waited too long to get into this game system. Although I'm not sure about the Mirror Universe, that Worlds book looks like it was pretty sweet. At least the preview section of it contained the expanded system generation rules, but it would have been cool to get those planet write-ups.

Score 1 for the digital revolution, 0 for the slacker fanboy

[Kirbinator]

Make that score 2 for the digital revolution and 0 for me, I didn't even know that these were ever available.

[radoskal]

Hello everyone I am new here and have a dilema similar to yours.

For years I have been an avid fan and player of the great line of Star Trek tabletop games put out by Decipher. I have spent quite a bit of time collecting every book in the line (quite a tough task since I heard about them long after the line had gone out of print) Mostly through good fortune at used gaming stores I was able to get all of the books save the last two which only came out on PDF. I was able to purchase the Mirror Universe sourcebook through DriveThrough RPG but by the next week when I went back to purchase the final book, Worlds they had removed all traces of the PDF from their website saying that they had lost the publishing rights.

Since then I have been fruitlessly poking around the internet trying to find another source from which I can download the PDF. I would hate to have to resort to something like BitTorrent and would rather support the RPG in some way, but having spent quite a bit of time, energy, and money assembling the entire run of the RPG I am somewhat perturbed to fall one book short.

Does anyone know of anywhere that the Star Trek RPG: Worlds pdf can still be found, or would anyone be willing to share a copy if they posses it? I own the Mirror Universe PDF and would be willing to exchange it for the Worlds PDF if anyone is looking for it, or even paypal someone for a copy of the worlds pdf.

Just send me off a private message.

It seems to me that Decipher made a conscious decision to make this product unavailable by any means accept P2P sharing even through there are good people like myself and those on this forum willing to give them good money for it. It would not be difficult to simply archive the PDF's for those who wish to download them, given a choice between Not getting the PDF ever, and getting it through a shared community of trek gamers i'll take the latter. If decipher ever decides to re publish the PDF's i'll support the effort at the drop of a hat, but in the mean time I don't think those of us who posess the PDF's should be afraid of sharing what we have. Since Decipher obviously no longer cares about their Trek product line.

Thank you,

PS: All these wonderfull gaming stats...woo.

[radoskal]

Thank you all for helping me out!

[bzero]

I'm kind of in the same boat -- I got into Decipher ST RPG way too late, and while I've bought all the available books, and gotten the "Worlds" PDF, when I went to buy "Mirror Universe" from DriveByRPGs, it was gone. It especially sucks because I really want to run a campaign set in the Mirror Universe. There needs to be a way to buy and sell out-of-'print' PDFs the way you would used books.

Anyone have any advice or help?

-- Brian

[Ineti]

Anyone have any advice or help

Not much you can do. Find someone willing to send you a copy of the PDF or find an illegal copy somewhere on a torrent (I don't recommend doing this, but it's about all the options you have).

Decipher doesn't have the Trek or LOTR licenses any more, and they will never sell their LOTR or Trek products again.

Chalk this up to one reason electronic-only materials suck--no legal second market to sell them. You can't go to a used pdf store to get an out of print pdf.

[Cut]

What about printing out a copy and giving that away for the print-out-costs? Then you could make sure, that the copy wouldn't find its way back into the internet and you could remove or overpaint your name and order number on the bottom of each side as well.
Quite costly as a move, but as there wouldn't be a profit involved that shouldn't be bothering people as much as actually sharing a digitial version of the books.

[Ineti]

What about printing out a copy and giving that away for the print-out-costs? Then you could make sure, that the copy wouldn't find its way back into the internet and you could remove or overpaint your name and order number on the bottom of each side as well.
Quite costly as a move, but as there wouldn't be a profit involved that shouldn't be bothering people as much as actually sharing a digitial version of the books.

Depending on where you live, this would be illegal as you don't own the right to make a copy of the work. Printing it out is making a copy. Digital rights is a sticky issue. It's unlikely anyone is going to give a crap if you print out a copy of a PDF and give it away. Ethics are in the individual's hands.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Depending on where you live, this would be illegal as you don't own the right to make a copy of the work. Printing it out is making a copy. Digital rights is a sticky issue. It's unlikely anyone is going to give a crap if you print out a copy of a PDF and give it away. Ethics are in the individual's hands.

Of course, there's basic ontological problems with what is 'copy/non-copy' in terms of your computer data. The 'actual thing' is a code of on/off switches that needs to be translated into visual impressions–copied from your hard drive into pixels on your screen.

[bzero]

Someone helped me out with the "Mirror Universe" PDF, and I got to spent all weekend running a Star Trek RPG for my girlfriend. So, all is well with me. Thanks for the help, guys!

[Poldon]

Joining the chorus here. Long-time CODA-LotR fan, and I am preparing a new CODA-Trek game with the books I just bought used from my local game store. Now I see there were .pdf files for Trek too? If someone would be kind enough to PM me and help me out with finding "Worlds" and "Mirror Universe", that would be fantastic. Thanks.