Quote:
Originally Posted by ucfgrad93
To me, it seems like he is trying to justify pirating other people's work. I think authors, musicians, etc. should be payed for their work and will not pirate.
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To be clear from the start: I don't at all support the endeavour of the entity mentioned in the first post, I think that's a wrong way to express your opinion (if that's what it is).
I pay for the vast majority of the books I read. I'm by no means rich, but I have absolutely no problem paying for a good book. I mainly buy from Kobo, Amazon, and Diesel. There are, however, cases where I will content myself with an illicit copy:
- Not available in your country
Shut up and take my money. No? Ok, I'll get it from elsewhere. I subscribe to an excellent VPN service with which I can pretend to be in the US or wherever in order to pay you, but I don't know why I should bother with that. I actually tried to give you my money, if you won't take it, fine. The most egregious example was when I tried to buy a "hit" book from a Norwegian author, which was not available in my country (Norway). I really don't understand what's up with that (and didn't bother to even acquire the book by any means).
- False advertising from Amazon
I hate region price gouging. I get emails all the time from Amazon, advertising really good offers on books I'm interested in. Well, whaddyaknow, when I actually click the link the price is suddenly 3-6 times higher than what I was offered. That is false advertising, which entails heavy punishment for companies where I live (Norway, which is of course why Amazon feels it can up the price -- Norwegians can pay). Amazon knows perfectly well where I live from my account info, and thus they hope I will just pay the higher price anyway. Sorry, no sale, and I now suddenly have no scruples getting similar bytes from elsewhere. I've been in contact with Amazon several times about their emails, and they pretend not to be aware of the problem, every time. But, if you say "fuck you" to me, well, right back at you. When I click a link offering e a book for $2.99, and the real price I have to pay to actually get the book turns out to be $16.74 because I'm Norwegian -- sorry, no deal. And I'll just help myself, by the way.
- Not available as ebook.
This is a bit more iffy for me. On several occasions I've emailed authors prior to reading a pirate-produced ebook, telling them that I would like to reimburse them for the pleasure reading their book will surely incur. The responses are generally of the variety "I can't take a donation for you. Sorry, no plans for an ebook" (or the equally useless "just wait, and a legal ebook will eventually be available"). Not good enough. One author responded with "Pay for a pbook and have it sent to a good cause, and I'm fine with your reading a pirated version". I won't disclose which particular author this was, as I'm not sure if the person would appreciate being mentioned in this post. However, the latter is a brilliant move, the former -- well, what can you do?
As a side note I work at a publishing company, trying my hardest to produce the best ebooks possible for our authors. I surely appreciate the need for reimbursing authors for their work, and I do understand the difficulties involved in distribution of said works, but as a reader I can say that's it not always feasible to go legit. The proper response to that might be "I will not pirate", but I don't really see a reason not to if you've given the publisher and author enough opportunities to claim your money. I want to read the book, after all
