I just realized the 5e Spellbook app has been discontinued [Archive]

samcifer

2017-11-28, 06:02 PM

Resources like that tend not to survive contact with the Wizard’s lawyer. Sadly.

Such a stupid mentality. Society is moving towards everything being digital and they want to force people to lug up to 5 books around and that's just for the pcs. Totally stupid mentality.

And this is coming from a man a week shy of his 45th birthday, no less!

krugaan

2017-11-28, 06:06 PM

Odd ... the one I have is still around, but it doesn't have the new spells, only the ones from the free material (phb, ee addition).

I guess that's the workaround.

You can add custom spells yourself, though.

Jama7301

2017-11-28, 06:21 PM

Such a stupid mentality. Society is moving towards everything being digital and they want to force people to lug up to 5 books around and that's just for the pcs. Totally stupid mentality.

And this is coming from a man a week shy of his 45th birthday, no less!
I hasn't seen the app, but was it made by Wizards, or by a third party? If it's the latter, they may be trying to drive people towards their own digital platforms by shutting down unofficial things.

Lucadibeppo

2017-11-28, 06:44 PM

I've got that app. There is a link to add SCAG and YA spells in the settings of the app.
D&D Beyond is going to be the only official online resource I'm afraid. Unless someone licenses the content.
I'm worried the other apps will get shut down.
I buy the books so I'm supporting Wizards and I know that can't just give out content for free but I don't want to pay twice for the convenience of mobile content.

samcifer

2017-11-28, 06:48 PM

I hasn't seen the app, but was it made by Wizards, or by a third party? If it's the latter, they may be trying to drive people towards their own digital platforms by shutting down unofficial things.

not sure who made it. the icon on the menu/main screen of the phone has an image of a bald and pointy-eared figure reaching a gray book with a red spine and white mystical symbols on it. It's labelled 5th Edition Spellbook.

PhoenixPhyre

2017-11-28, 06:53 PM

I hasn't seen the app, but was it made by Wizards, or by a third party? If it's the latter, they may be trying to drive people towards their own digital platforms by shutting down unofficial things.

It isn't just trying to drive content, it's shutting down copyright infringement. BTW, at least the IOS app store requires you to attest that you own a license to all material used. Which the authors certainly didn't (as D&D Beyond holds the only license to anything beyond the SRD). That is, the authors of that app were violating both copyright law and app store policies. That means it's totally fair game to nuke as soon as they knew about it.

Sucks, but that's the law. If they (WoTC) knowingly let it slide, they'd be opening themselves up to arguments that they were granting an implicit license (through estoppel by silence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel#Types)) to the content. And that's a bad thing.

Sigreid

2017-11-28, 06:57 PM

It isn't just trying to drive content, it's shutting down copyright infringement. BTW, at least the IOS app store requires you to attest that you own a license to all material used. Which the authors certainly didn't (as D&D Beyond holds the only license to anything beyond the SRD). That is, the authors of that app were violating both copyright law and app store policies. That means it's totally fair game to nuke as soon as they knew about it.

Sucks, but that's the law. If they (WoTC) knowingly let it slide, they'd be opening themselves up to arguments that they were granting an implicit license (through estoppel by silence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel#Types)) to the content. And that's a bad thing.

Fantasy Grounds has license for all the content. You have to purchase it though. Getting the content for it is just like buying it from the store. I do wind up paying twice, but I like having a hard copy and FG is a fantastic tool.

PhoenixPhyre

2017-11-28, 07:00 PM

Fantasy Grounds has license for all the content. You have to purchase it though. Getting the content for it is just like buying it from the store. I do wind up paying twice, but I like having a hard copy and FG is a fantastic tool.

I guess that's right, but that's more of a re-sale license (the purchase price goes mostly to WoTC, not FG). FG is more like Steam or Amazon in that instance--they host the content and act as a vendor and integrator, but you have to supply your own license to that individual copy. That's semantics, though. The app in question had no such license was my main point. Thanks for clarifying.

Sigreid

2017-11-28, 07:44 PM

I guess that's right, but that's more of a re-sale license (the purchase price goes mostly to WoTC, not FG). FG is more like Steam or Amazon in that instance--they host the content and act as a vendor and integrator, but you have to supply your own license to that individual copy. That's semantics, though. The app in question had no such license was my main point. Thanks for clarifying.

You are 100% correct, I'm sure. You can't really hold this against WoTC too much though. If they didn't act to protect their IP rights they would lose them. It's entirely possible they would have liked to let the app slide, and might have for as long as legal said they could get away with it.

PhoenixPhyre

2017-11-28, 07:49 PM

You are 100% correct, I'm sure. You can't really hold this against WoTC too much though. If they didn't act to protect their IP rights they would lose them. It's entirely possible they would have liked to let the app slide, and might have for as long as legal said they could get away with it.

Yeah. Sucks, to be sure. The law often does, even when it generally does the right thing.

Sigreid

2017-11-28, 07:53 PM

Yeah. Sucks, to be sure. The law often does, even when it generally does the right thing.

Someone probably filed some kind of a suit that got that law written that way. That's how new rules usually happen.

PhoenixPhyre

2017-11-28, 08:03 PM

Someone probably filed some kind of a suit that got that law written that way. That's how new rules usually happen.

Too true. People pressing the letter of the law (RAW?) and ignoring the spirit is why we can't have nice things. Same goes for the game--too many people start being obnoxious with loopholes and everything gets tightened down in a way that no one likes.

Lombra

2017-11-28, 08:05 PM

You can actually add yourself a new book, call it Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and add each spell manually I believe, will try later.

Edit: yup. It's tedious but possible.

Edit 2: from the sidebar menu, select settings, scroll down to find Spell creator,
it will send you to a website, at the bottom of the page there are a couple links that allow you to download a .txt file containing the spells from both SCAG and XgtE,
then, from the All spells tab, tap the menu icon in the bottom right corner, select Import spells, and browse the device to find the files you just downloaded. For ease of use, I uploaded the files to my dropbox, since the app opens it by default (at least on my device).

So yeah the app ceased development but the future spells can still be added.

samcifer

2017-11-28, 08:43 PM

so the android app I use is "5th Edition Spellbook" by m&m Apps

It's still available as a free download. One warning... There doesn't seem to be any way to remove spells once added.

furby076

2017-11-28, 08:50 PM

Such a stupid mentality. Society is moving towards everything being digital and they want to force people to lug up to 5 books around and that's just for the pcs. Totally stupid mentality.

And this is coming from a man a week shy of his 45th birthday, no less!

This drives me nuts. I should be able to buy a PDF version, or if I buy the book version then a PDF version comes with it. Why do I need to lug around all those books? It's heavy, they get damaged.

samcifer

2017-11-28, 08:51 PM

I tried "D&D 5th Edition Spell Book" by Patrick H as another free option. but it's stuck on the initial text screen and won't do anything else. Granted, I'm using a bargain basement android tracphone, so that might be the issue.

Lucadibeppo

2017-11-28, 09:36 PM

so the android app I use is "5th Edition Spellbook" by m&m Apps

It's still available as a free download. One warning... There doesn't seem to be any way to remove spells once added.

I assumed this is the app we are all talking about. Works fine for me, I've updated all the spells and it even overwrites duplicates.

Spacehamster

2017-12-10, 06:11 AM

Such a stupid mentality. Society is moving towards everything being digital and they want to force people to lug up to 5 books around and that's just for the pcs. Totally stupid mentality.

And this is coming from a man a week shy of his 45th birthday, no less!

Yeah, would be one thing if they offered apps for everything practical for a decent price themselves cause can understand they don’t want others making money on their product(or making free apps that they have paid official versions of).

TavernMage

2017-12-14, 03:19 AM

It isn't just trying to drive content, it's shutting down copyright infringement. BTW, at least the IOS app store requires you to attest that you own a license to all material used. Which the authors certainly didn't (as D&D Beyond holds the only license to anything beyond the SRD). That is, the authors of that app were violating both copyright law and app store policies. That means it's totally fair game to nuke as soon as they knew about it.

Sucks, but that's the law. If they (WoTC) knowingly let it slide, they'd be opening themselves up to arguments that they were granting an implicit license to the content. And that's a bad thing.

There are smart reasons that companies like Google open source their software.

WOTC is totally missing it.

If WOTC wants exponential growth, release the core books and spells for free. Let anyone make apps about them. This growth hacks your user base.

Then sell the *adventures*.

When will they catch up to the digital age?

Malaketh

2017-12-14, 10:44 AM

There are smart reasons that companies like Google open source their software.

WOTC is totally missing it.

If WOTC wants exponential growth, release the core books and spells for free. Let anyone make apps about them. This growth hacks your user base.

Then sell the *adventures*.

When will they catch up to the digital age?

à la Pathfinder

Asmotherion

2017-12-14, 11:14 AM

I think there should be an official app. I would gladly pay for it.

I mean, WOTC practically gave us almost the whole of 5e (next) for free, and most of Xanathar's (beta version) through Unearthed Arcana, and still some people complain. I love their buisness mentality, and would gladly support it, over some mmorpgs for example, that practically ask you to pay a monthly fee or loose your account.

samcifer

2017-12-14, 11:21 AM