Cutting Prices is the only way to stop piracy

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by Adriaan12452

At this moment many scientific books cost over $150 for about 800-1200 pages, a paperback edition. With all due respect, anyone who doesn't find that excessively expensive is in my opinion out of his mind.

I have a paid for 5th edition of one of my science books and a pirated 3rd edition as a PDF on my computer. I read them interchangeably. There really was no need for me to buy that brand new book, but I did, and I prefer to read my free 3rd edition because it's lighter.

[OtterBooks]

"Piracy is not harmful to book sales, and may even be beneficial!"

"They should lower prices to reduce piracy!"

[sabredog]

Cutting prices is a good start.

But making ebooks more accessible by doing away with geo restrictions and DRM would go a long way to eliminating casual piracy by those who are quite happy to purchase an ebook title, but cannot due to geo restrictions and non availability of that DRM'ed ebook in the format suitable for their ereader.

[wyndslash]

yeah, i hate geo restrictions. it would be great if the amazon whispernet delivery charges or whatever it is is optional instead of an across the board charge to certain countries regardless of the device they use to read on. quite unfair, and it makes me think twice about which books i'm going to buy, since i want to get the most out of the price :| otherwise, i'd have bought a lot by now, simply by impulse

[FF2]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Cutting prices is a good start.

But making ebooks more accessible by doing away with geo restrictions and DRM would go a long way to eliminating casual piracy by those who are quite happy to purchase an ebook title, but cannot due to geo restrictions and non availability of that DRM'ed ebook in the format suitable for their ereader.

Well, you do have a point. The fact that a book is geo-restricted in not exactly equal to attempting to illegally import cocaine or rhino horn or even child pornography. You are blocking someone from attempting to purchase an otherwise legal object. There is no way for a person to acquire it legally but they could acquire the pbook - can you get much crazier than that. Transferring electrons is improper but actual book is not. Folks wonder about the sanity of certain laws and this is definitely one of them. Since they cannot possibly acquire a legal product in a legal fashion could drive some to go to the dark side.

[HappyMartin]

I am much more likely to break the law over geo restrictions than I am over price.

[Jcas]

For me it isnt price, if i want a book i will buy it, but those pesky geographical restrictions are enough to drive me to piracy.

I have been after a copy of a novel called Pope Joan, i can go into the local bookstore and buy a paper copy, but i went to amazon to buy the ebook, and was greeted by the message Not Available to Australia

I went to the authors page and left a message there asking about geo restrictions but they don't even reply, i honestly think that geo restrictions is a big reason why we look for other methods of obtaining a book.

[Horemheb]

Geo restrictions are outrageous and ridiculous. It is absolutely morally acceptable to circumvent geo restrictions even by going pirate. I think everyone living in restricted areas should do the same.

I mentioned in some other topic that I know some people who will never read again paper books. In their cases it is absolutely certain that they WILL read all books they want. The only question is whether they are allowed to pay for it or not.

[Bikeridr]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

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Originally Posted by Jcas

Snip.

Originally Posted by Horemheb

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Ditto.
Could not agree more to the three above.

I've sent emails to uptight authors/publishers regarding titles and plainly asked them if my money is worth nothing for them. Just a few percent bothers to answer, and "shall look into it"..

[richrock]

Here's my 2p worth (from the UK):

Geo-restriction : I can understand this, as a web developer, a recent project involved getting free remastered music online, but copyright law in different countries meant the client was severely hampered at a worldwide release, but now has to work out legal wranglings per country... Annoying, but in terms of ebooks, the same copyright issues still apply as far as I'm aware... I can wait, but only so long....

Prices are ridiculous - again as a web dev, I can tell you that storage in Cloud servers would be next to nothing, and each download would cost a fraction of a cent (most are US-based that I've dealt with). As the file size is what 0.5mb - 4mb (ish) it's virtually free to store. That leaves the typical costs of editing, proofreading and setting of the file. I've not got much idea of these, and so would guess that they would equate to around 50% of the cost of a book. I'm prepared to pay up to 75% of a 'real' version, otherwise - again - I'll wait. BUT only so long before it's available 'elsewhere'. I'd like to honour the authors with my cash for their efforts, not everything should be free.

Try doing your full-time job for nothing. Then pay the bills - with what?

I think publishers should seriously look at the previous models for film and music, and take note. Trying to force similar values to e-versions and the hard-copy versions doesn't work. Lower the prices, get more sales. Yeah, theres always gonna be piracy in these days, but compelling pricing would reduce a large portion of that.

Rant over. :-)

[SpiderMatt]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Sorry, $8 is too much for me.

Does that mean I can ethically pirate it?

No need: http://www.scribd.com/doc/50196972/MPEE-1-0-1

[crossi]

Most people are willing to pay for convenience and safety. Venders like Amazon supply both in abundance. Even if people took non-DRM'd books from Amazon and posted them elsewhere my Father would still go to Amazon for his books. He can barely navigate the Amazon site. I can't imagine him trying to find and download from the darknet. The techy sort might, but there aren't enough of them to worry about, the rest just want a quick, safe download from a known site. They are not interested in searching the web for their books or music. Too many people on this site ARE techies. They just don't understand that what seems simple to them is way past what most are able or willing to do.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by richrock

Prices are ridiculous - again as a web dev, I can tell you that storage in Cloud servers would be next to nothing, and each download would cost a fraction of a cent (most are US-based that I've dealt with). As the file size is what 0.5mb - 4mb (ish) it's virtually free to store. That leaves the typical costs of editing, proofreading and setting of the file. I've not got much idea of these, and so would guess that they would equate to around 50% of the cost of a book. I'm prepared to pay up to 75% of a 'real' version, otherwise - again - I'll wait.

Yeah, we won't bother paying the author or worry about the publisher making a profit. We'll base the idea of a 'book' only on the physical medium. Meanwhile, I will continue to pay for the content of the book.

[richrock]

I was specifying the content - I certainly don't buy books for the purty covers or whatever. I buy a book because the subject interests me, or the story seems compelling. However, I am not paying for natural resources used to create that book, so why pay the premium? Competitive pricing of ebooks compared to paper books irrespective of content would lead to greater sales of the e-version, and subsequently less damage done by piracy.

I make this comment for both established publishers and those who wish to self-publish. We all have to earn a living somehow. My principal argument is against those who demand it be free, such as Giggleton in post #3 - if people distribute the book for free, fine, if not, be prepared to pay, but why pay the same (or in some cases more) when the medium is different? I remember this with Tapes to CD, CD to Minidisc (yes still use mine) and DVD to Blu-Ray. Sorry, rambling a bit now..... must go and get back to work :-(

[Adriaan12452]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

in terms of textbook prices, i think most are just rip-offs. they keep coming out with new editions every year, and they're all the same content. they just switch the chapters around and update the examples, but that's all. our profs usually just tell us to stick with the old edition unless a significant amount of time has passed enough that the amount of new content becomes substantial.

You make a good point. I forgot to mention that you even pay those prices for the Xth edition.
It's wonderful that your professors have this common sense, I wish that all professors would stick with a book for about a decade unless there are substantial changes in the content of the book and the field (for example for microbiology).

The prices are not the only problem though, I have bought this book (but then the international paperback-edition): http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-E...0282504&sr=1-1
When I read the inside of my hand often is a tiny bit sweaty while it rests on the book, to my surprise the ink of this book smeared.
Come on guys, if one pays €100 for the fourth edition of a book one expects
at the very least a solid cover, non-glossy pages and nonsmearing ink.
If the prices would be reasonable I would buy all the obligatory books and download the recommended books, I think that that would be fair. With these prices I prefer to download as many as I can, i simply can't afford to buy all the books I need to read even though I do not spend my money on too much luxury.