Quote:
Originally Posted by ekaser
The problem with "sharing with friends" is that sharing ebooks is different from sharing a physical book. A physical book has but a single copy, and travels 'linearly' through friends (and if it travels very far, will eventually wear out, thus self-limiting the amount of sharing). Surely you've heard of "six degrees of difference", or the Kevin Bacon game (where EVERY person on the planet can be connected with ANY other person on the planet in no more than SIX steps)? I have my circle of friends. Each of them has their own circle of friends, and so on. If I share a book with MY friends, and they share it with THEIR friends... well, I'm sure you see where I'm going. If you don't want DRM (I don't either), then the social standard HAS to be NO sharing of ebooks, period. But, if the price is lowered to something reasonable, then it becomes far less of an issue. There is NO reason (other than publisher greed) why an ebook should cost more than $2-3, which would cover the author royalties and a profit for the 'publisher'. Most folks wouldn't hesitate to spend $3 for a book. Piracy explodes when the price is perceived as being ridiculously high. Lower the price to a reasonable level and piracy becomes a minor issue.
Most of this has been well covered in several other threads regarding DRM and piracy, so I'm not trying to restart the discussion here. Merely pointing out that the "sharing with friends should be okay" argument has a big fallacy built into it.
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hm, i suppose theoretically that could be true, but i really doubt that on a practical level it would turn out that way, if only because of varying taste ; i share books with a couple of friend, however we don't share *all* books because we don't like exactly the same things. some books i buy don't interest my friends, some books they buy don't interest me. i really don't see lending a copy of an ebook to one friend making the tour of the world.
also, i think it's important to keep in mind that sharing books and culture is a fundamental part of the human experience ; not only do i think it's not *practical* to think that should change completely, i also think we would *all* be significantly poorer (on a cultural level) if it did. there have been many books i wasn't sure i would like (or even was pretty sure i *wouldn't* like), and even on the recommendation of a friend i wouldn't have bought them (even for 2-3$). but if someone *lent* me the book, it's a no-risk situation for me ; i can try it out, and if i dislike it, i just give it back, i don't even have to read the whole thing. but sometimes it turns out that i *do* like it, to my surprise. then the author has gained a reader who will buy more books from them in future, which probably would not have happened otherwise.
there's also the case of people who simply can't spare even 2-3$ (especially since it's not just 2-3$, it's 2-3$ x n number of books ; nobody ever reads just *one* book) ; when i was a student there were plenty of things i couldn't afford to buy, including lots of books (i had to buy too many already for my classes) and thank god for the library and for friends, or i don't know what i would have done. however i discovered a lot of authors at that time that i still love today and now that i have the means to buy their books, i do.