Quote:
Originally Posted by jackdavid
You either buy it all or pirate it all.
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I really don't believe this. It may be true for you, but there have been several studies showing that the most frequent users of file-sharing software for music are also the people who buy the most music from legitimate sources.
With regards to libraries, since libraries pay for hardbound "library edition" copies of books (more durable, more expensive) and make their future purchases based in part on what books are being checked out most frequently, i.e. authors with books that are popular at the library get purchased by the library more often, borrowing books from a library does in fact compensate the author. In the UK, where authors are additionally compensated by metrics tracking how often books are borrowed by library patrons, the compensation is even stronger.
I think the Baen model (which is the same model that Steve Jordan uses) is a good one-- offer a few books per author for free, offer the rest as reasonably priced non-DRM editions and trust that the vast majority of your readers will simply pay for the content they want, rather than trying to download it elsewhere. Even if occasionally people do upload copies to filesharing networks, if the proportion of people who download from such networks remains small because it's easier and safer to get the "real thing" for a reasonable sum, the authors and publishers will still do fine. I'm just hoping the rest of the publishing world comes to this conclusion eventually.