I am going to tell you why they can't sell PDFs. The Star Wars game license is diveded. 1 license for digital gaming. This is the license EA hold. One license covers tabletop gaming this is the license is what FFG has. Pdfs are considered a part of the digital license and thus FFG can't sell pdfs. They sell other pdfs for other lines. So they are not opposed to it. But they are not allowed to per the license that was created for WEG. PDFS were not even invented then.

Well that was odd.

I own 95% of the books they have. Yet I still use the PDF spec sheets and salivate over the spoiler threads weeks before I can get a copy of my book. I'm here to tell you anyone "pirating" is getting a far inferior gaming experience. You must know just how much incredible inspiration is on every page of every book, it is truly phenomenal. Endless Vigil is possibly my favourite of the entire three lines so far, it's worth so much to me and my games.

Now not 3 weeks ago there was a post on the Edge forums from a person complaining about the lack of reprint material. They only buy Edge and therefore don't have the Armour Crafting rules, Beast Riding rules and the soon to be released Ship Building rules. Their complaint was basically "why should I have to buy books I don't want for only so I can get part of it?" If Pirating was such a huge problem with this game then that kind of thread would be completely nonexistent.

I think perhaps you have jumped the gun a little in your concerns and I sincerely hope your proven wrong by FFG. One thing I really expect to see as a benefit out of GeneSys is PDF's. No longer being bound by the SW license they should be able to release the Core book at least as PDF, and probably a lot lot more. For me as a SW fan I can't wait, I'll get that PDF the day it's released just to get the basics in my pocket.

If people really wanted to get their hands on rules illegally they could just pirate the books. Scans are usually floating around the web within days anyway, and there's not much FFG can do to stop that.

Plus piracy is a strange old fish. I'm not sure if RPG's match movies, but research shows the people who pirate movies are typically also those with the highest spend on movies. Thus in cracking down too harshly you also end up cracking down on your customers harshly.

To an extent, piracy helps spread your brand as a company, and increase exposure to the product. As it is a group game, even a GM using pirated copies may result in players buying product.

When it gets dangerous is if things happened like OggDude including full text, as then it can end up far more convenient than owning the game books, and then you can significantly lose sales. Which is why he doesn't.