|
Commenting on the origin of the thread...
I don't see a massive wave of ebook piracy coming to ebooks the way it hit the music industry. The main difference that I see is that there has always been alternative options for reading books for free. Libraries are well stocked with free books, people share by custom and "take a book / leave a book" sites are all over the place. The relatively small percentage of the general population that buy books do it because they want to, because it's more convient or they think it's the right thing to do. These aren't people that are quick to jump to piracy.
The music industry was fertile ground for piracy. Their consumers were not happy but the industry didn't care. People thought CD's were over priced, they didn't like that they had to buy entire albulms to just get one song they liked, they didn't like that they were expected to rebuy their music libraries. When a free alternative presented itself people jumped all over it.
I don't see the same conditions with ebooks. The consumers don't have the historical resentment and they've always had the ability to read free books for the rest of their lives. The current practices of the big publishing houses is creating the same fertile grounds for piracy but I think it will be a gradual change and not a massive wave.
From what I've observed it won't be one of downloads either. I think it will be massive ebook library exchanges between people.
|