Quote:
Originally Posted by Randolphlalonde
The fact you're ignoring is that if people didn't actually pay for my work in eBook format I wouldn't be able to write full time. I'm not being over dramatic, that's just a fact.
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Do you expect that print books will only be read by one person, the original purchaser? Do you think of every used copy sold at a yard sale as lost royalties and cheating you out of your rightful payment?
Much of the problems with ebook filesharing is that there's no simple, legal way to transfer ownership or loan them out, the way that's done with pbooks. And authors have *never* been able to expect 1 purchase=1 reader.
With ebooks, there's the issue that it's as easy to make a copy as to loan the original. Easier, in many cases; removing data from a hard drive is harder than copying it. But if the DRM servers allowed one user to transfer ownership of their ebook files to someone else by sending in an email ("send a transfer code to email X; when it goes through, un-authorize my computer/kindle/PDA from this ebook"), there'd be a lot less incentive to crack DRM, and a lot less feeling of "now that I've done all that work so I can let my friend read it, why not just share it with the world?"
Ebook filesharing started as scans-and-conversions of books that weren't available as ebooks. (My txt copy of Dragonriders of Pern is dated 1998.) It continued, and grew, as commercial ebooks became available, because publishers decided to exploit a business model that wasn't possible with physical books: prevent transfer of ownership, so every reader would have to make a separate purchase!
Had they also charged 1/3 the paperback price for these books, people might've calmly accepted that. When they charge the same or comparable amounts for paper & ebook editions, they can expect readers to demand the same freedoms with their purchases.