Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
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.
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Funny that you mention 'disengenuous' and then without any supporting data want us to accept piracy is an issue.
If I were an author, I would be way more worried about the continuous increase in competition. In the dead-tree days, the shelf time of the average book was rather short and hence competition limited. Even books that were in the public domain had to be printed, had a price-tag associated and had to compete for the shelf space (and with lower margins, that was an uphill battle). eBooks can and will remain on the shelf forever -- that has some advantages for authors, but at the same time the choice for potential buyers will increase tremendously. Add to those the large amount of absolutely free public domain works (I guess Project Gutenberg alone will have over 50 million downloads in 2011, and their works are now available in the Apple library and will be available on Amazon.com for free shortly) and competition seems rather stiff.
The upside is, that if you produce a high quality work it will be around and get read forever. Less high quality books run the risks of disappearing in the background.