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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Do they have any evidence that those books cut into their sales numbers? Have they compared sales of books that they found pirated vs those they didn't, and found the ones that weren't pirated were selling better?...
Neither is insisting that every file downloaded is a lost sale.
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Lack of specific data doesn't prove that it's not happening... this, like so many other DRM-related quotes that circulate about on a regular basis, is a disingenuous way of attacking the issue, and it's time we moved on from it.
There will be no specific data. Get over it, and accept that piracy is an issue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nashira
DRM treats everyone like a criminal...
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No, it doesn't, any more than a lock on a door treats every person as a criminal.
Security is designed to deter real criminals. It's an extra burden on the honest (you think I like carrying around a pocketful of keys, and keeping track of over 50 individual passwords for various websites and accounts?), but it's the price honest people have to accept when they live in a world that has criminals.
Like all of you, I agree that DRM as it exists today doesn't work, and might as well be trashed tomorrow (which is why I don't apply it to my books...
ever). But the big pubs aren't going to do that, because they presently have no other alternative to protect their property. Any businessperson understands the need to protect their goods from theft... it's the only way they will be profitable, hence, the only reason to be in business.
Unauthorized copying and dissemination of ebooks is a problem. It costs companies and indies profits. This cannot be denied, even if no specific numbers exist. Big Pubs are having a hard enough time trying to budget out their transition to digital, without having any way to calculate losses. Product security will always be an issue, the way it is with every other product sold on this planet.
And the problem won't be solved until the people involved stop hurling rhetoric around, and logically deal with the problem. Like Mark, I don't see any sign of that happening in the next year. And in the meantime, any publishers that go the no-DRM route will probably do it to officially assume a measurable amount of loss, and apply that to raising pricing and fees to mitigate that loss.