AB wondering (kinda)

[LordGrise]

Ok, originally I was going to post this in the AB thread over at the other table there. But the more I wrote, the more it felt like an attempt to hijack the thread. So, herewith: (width? I dunno, night shift/dayshift swapover is doing weird things to my thinking...)

Concerning the latest not-understandable (Chaos has infiltrated GW management! has to be!) legal maneuver GW has performed - cease-and-desist on Army Builder - I just don't get it. I mean, I understand protecting your IP. I have no issue with that - you created it, you want to make money off it.

But Cease and Desist on AB is just dumb; you're ticking off your own customers and quite arguably impeding your own sales, since one of the things about AB is that it tends to highlight what you DON'T have yet. (Oooo, shoppy list! Gotta get 'em all, gotta get'em all... NO! Bad fingers. Not done here. Must post first. THEN we shoppy. We'll go to FW in a little bit...) Sorry - uhm, as I was typing...

So, fully understanding that this is probably an unanswerable question... why does GW not either form partnerships with folks like these who (kinda) ride their coat-tails, or just buy them out? That's been my biggest thing with the entire Chapterhouse debacle - if they're doing add-ons to your product lines, and making a buck doing it, why not just show up on the front doorstep with a suitcase of money in one hand and a baseball bat in the other? Unleashing the lawyers just makes for fat lawyers... and not all of them yours. Does nothing for the bottom line except create tax write-offs.

(NO! Gimme my wallet! Mine! Mine...!

[Wildcard]

It could be that GW is bringing its own verseion of Army Builder to the market soon(ish), and want's to kill all the competition for multiple reasons:
- They get people to buy their program that lets them cover the cost of making the software and after that, naturally, make more money
- It could also be (i have not yet seen this mentioned/speculated anywhere) that the hush hush treaty concerning Hobbit is forcing GW to put stop to the AB usage
- Or it could be that with the allowing of Allies, they decided, that if people can't use AB to look for different armies and their wargears/rules/units, they have to buy a codex for that army. (Which is imo, GW just shooting itself in the leg)..

Personally, i have those codexes that i own as pdf (in such a format that supports 'search' function) for ease of reference. (And in Finland this is not illegal since i own the original product. Imo legislation states reasonable amount of backup copies of stuff owned (that can is in format to make a backup copy that is))

I just hope that whatever the reason it is that GW is now demanding end to the AB datafiles, that in the near future i will be able to use GWs digital release Codexes, Rulebooks, Supplements, Etc + GWs AB(equivalent) with a reasonable price and on my Windows 7(or 8) platforms..

[Wildeybeast]

Fairly simple answer to these questions.

Partnership - messy legal issues about who owns what, you risk losing control of your own IP and you have to split the profits with someone else.
Buy them out - Why bother when you already do things better than them (in the case of Chapterhouse) or could quite easily do it yourself (in the case of AB)?

There is also the issue that these people might not want to sell out to GW and slapping the lawsuit smack down costs the other side if they lose.
As GW has shown on many occasions, they have no qualms about annoying the vocal internet base providing people keep forking out the money for their stuff and blocking AB is only going to annoy a small minority of their customers.

[Wolfshade]

The biggest issue is that its third party have been providing GW IP, which unfortunately under UK law must be challenged otherwise it is granting them a free license thus diluting their IP.
A lot of people have AB without all the codecii that relate to it