Andre Yoskowitz
18 Oct 2009 18:58
In April, Wizards of the Coast sued 8 alleged file sharers over copyright infringement for unauthorized sharing of the then newly introduced Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook 2.
The lawsuits claimed the Handbook was illegally shared on file-sharing websites and the many downloads of the unauthorized copies led to lost sales and lost revenue for the company.
This week, two of the eight accused have settled with Wizards, and the company is seeking a default judgment against one more of the accused.
Thomas Patrick Nolan of Florida settled for $125,000 USD and Arthur Le of California settled for $100,000, says Komo. Le's co-defendant, Mike Becker of Oklahoma, was ordered to pay $30,000 in damages and almost $15,000 in legal fees but has so far not responded to the lawsuit and remains in default. Wizards is hoping to collect that money.
Two other cases, against Stefan Osmena of the Philippines and Krysztof Radzikowski of Poland, remain pending, while the three other defendants still remain unknown, most likely because Wizards is having trouble prosecuting the non-American defendants.
The "Player's Handbook 2" retails for $40 USD and includes 242 pages of rules for the game Dungeons & Dragons. The online version has electronic watermarks specifically restricting the material to the person who purchased it.
Wizards says 2600 copies were downloaded from Scribd.com and another 4200 copies were viewed online before it was taken down by request from the copyright holder.