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Originally Posted by GreenMonkey
You're wrong, here, to some extent. I know people on Xbox live, and in person, that don't know how to use a router beyond plugging the network cable in. They don't know how to access the web interface, turn on the firewall, the password is on the default unless a CD program walks them through changing it.
But they know how to download music, movies and such from the internet with a torrent or such, just fine, and feel little compunction not to do it. It's not really very hard.
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I might well be wrong, but I haven't seen enough verifiable evidence to prove it.
One question is demographics. What's the age range of the folks you know on Xbox Live? I'm assuming younger, and further assuming more familiarity with things like torrent sites due to that.
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Like books, also, it's easier for people to download a torrent of a movie than deal with ripping a DVD and converting to h.264 or whatever.
I try to stick to books I already own the hardcover or paperback of. But lots of people will think nothing of downloading whatever they want.
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From where I sit, convenience rules.
For instance, a lot of the sort of thing I read is available from torrent sites, but
not in a form I want to use. Chances are good it's plain text or a PDF. Both require a fair bit of work to put them into a format I'd use (with the plain text requiring the most because I'd have to add a lot of markup.)
I place a value on my
time, so it wouldn't be "free", even if there was no cost on the source file. I might very well just
buy a well done copy of the book already in the desired format than take the trouble required to convert it. I want to spend the time
reading the book, not getting it into a form I can read.
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I think that they should try the DVD model. Price should drop over the years. This whole "set a high retail price and stick to it" is part of the reason for a decline in music sales, I think. It's hard to turn down a DVD for the price of gas to drive into town. It'd be just as hard to turn down a book for $1 or $2. Heck, I hate DRM with a passion, but I'd probably still bite at low enough prices.
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Whether I'd bite depends on content, not price. I have more books now than I have time to read, so new acquisitions have to be fairly compelling. The question isn't "How cheap is it?", it's "How badly do I want to read it?" If I'm unlikely to ever get around to reading a book, there's no particular point in getting it, regardless of the price.
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Dennis