Play D&D for free online, but upload the digital books and pay a fine

I've never been big on MMORPGs like World of Warcraft et al. The subscription fees are an annoyance and the game are addictive. Frankly, I waste enough time and don't need another time suck, but am intrigued by this bit of news about the online Dungeons and Dragons game.

They have retooled the site to make it free to play. They make money by charging for extras which are totally optional and casual players can have just as much fun than the folks who pony up for the shiny swords.

Meanwhile, someone's gone and mocked up a version of D&D for the Microsoft Surface. It's cool looking and I would appreciate the computer taking care of the labourious math housekeeping that is central to the game, but you can keep the virtual dice. I want to throw a  set of real bones when I play.

D&D's owners, the Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, have also been in the news lately because they won a copyright lawsuit against a pair of hapless pirates who posted the latest Player's Handbook to scribd.com. Each was fined more than $100,000. Needless to say, the lawsuit doesn't erase the fact that digital copies of the book are easily available online. Maybe instead of suing people, they should sell digital copies of their own.