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Originally Posted by HarryT
Why not buy Microsoft Reader (LIT) books? They can (where legal to do so) have their DRM trivially removed and be converted to other formats. Virtually all eBooks can be bought in LIT format.
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I guess I could, and maybe I will when I'm feeling generous, but it doesn't sound like the path of least resistance. you can't expect the majority of ebook readers to do this. It also scares me. What if I buy a lit file and find out they've finally fixed their DRM? Why bother stressing about it when I can just download a non DRM file from the next site? If paying takes an extra 10 minutes, even most willing people won't bother.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Can you explain how region codes can "screw up" a DVD player? That's a concept I've not come across before.
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I change countries frequently. If you alternate between putting DVD's of two different region codes in a player... after 6 changes the player is locked and can only play DVD's from whatever the last region code was.
This idea was created so that movie industries could set up flexible pricing, while deterring rich westerners from buying cheaper asia-marketed DVDs. It works against them in my case, since I buy most DVD's in Asia, and am afraid to buy American made DVD's. I mean, ... maybe it's not such a big deal,... but why risk it when you can get american movies online for free? Save money and not have to fear breaking your hardware?
Again, like with the lit file idea, I'm not putting a lot of effort into this, ... and no-one can expect anyone to put much effort into it. I've been told that DVD region codes can break my DVD player, so when I have two options, I go for the one that obviously can't break my DVD player. In western countries, that will be the pirated one. Here I pay extra for legitimate DVDs because I know they still usually don't set the region code, and because I know I'm more likely to get subtitles and not have to watch something that was filmed inside the movie theater.
There might be a few people out there with some kind of moral guide telling them to pay, ... (and a bunch who try to come up with convoluted analogies telling them not to pay), ... but when it comes down to it, .. especially after a generation or two, ... the path of least resistance will be the path people will take. Morals don't mean anything. If you're to get people to pay for books, it has to be the path of least resistance.
I do think it will change the way people write, but, there are things that can have an affect on these issues. It would have to involve a number of factors though, For example:
In terms of the micro payment problem mentioned by sanders, ... maybe you pay $10-20 at a time and can download 5-10 books. subscription style. I'd sign up if there were books on there I wanted. Then when I buy a book I don't have to look for my credit card, or search around for some crappy OCR. I'd already have $10 in my account which adds convenience for me, and which you can invest and make interest on. $10-20 is nothing, especially if I then know I can download 10 books at any time conveniently in any format. Maybe the best format would be to make it 10 euros to sign up. Then you get more money, and it's still a nice round low number. I think people would go for it at $2/book. at least half the money would go to running servers and profit and such.
which came first, the chicken or the egg? It might not work until after e-ink readers are popular... because otherwise you might have trouble finding the range of content *and* the customers at the same time. with a small range of content most won't bother signing up.
You could add in free downloads of non-copyrighted books with signup (or deduct a tiny tiny amount of money like 5 cents from their account for bandwidth and minimal profits), ... and that alone might be enough convenience to convince people to give you a little money. If people are using it heavily, they'll give you more money. If not, ... well,... invest their money and collect the interest.
Social DRM has some affect in that someone at least has to edit their name out of the file before posting it on the web. reposting non-DRM files also doesn't offer any sense of accomplishment.
Make the service agreement clear too. The subscriber is agreeing not to share the information when he/she signs up. Not just a fear of legal consequences, but an agreement between the buyer and seller. a buyer who'd like to keep getting more data at the same CHEAP rates. You can apply a little bit of pressure on those who have a guilty bone, and having a good cheap service will make it easier to apply that pressure. If someone duplicates your site and all your content, sure, ... take them down. but don't go chasing after individual customers for emailing the file to a friend. If they post it on a web site send them a "hey, that's against our terms and conditions, cut it out" email, not just starting with a lawsuit.
Add a couple of bucks to someone's account when they refer a friend... then someone has a monetary incentive to say "hey, this site is cool, it's only $10 and you can get these cool books I'm reading, it's worth it," (and thus getting a couple bucks in their account).. as opposed to saying to their friend "hey, save a buck, here's a copy of that cool book I'm reading." If the second friend really wouldn't have signed up for the service (and the first friend knows it) then the first friend doesn't miss out on $2 in sharing the file, but then, ... you didn't really miss out on his $10 either since he never would have signed up.
Make a whole social networking system out of it, and pay anyone 10 cents for referring any book to anyone who buys it (even if they already have an account). People will want others to PAY for the book they recommend, because they'll get paid when the next guy purchases it. tap into librarything.com somehow. web 2.0 is the hot thing right?
This essentially makes every customer a profiting marketing publisher, ... and thus protecting his OWN interests in not pirating the books he bought. Morals can always be tweaked with convoluted analogies, but people will work to protect their own interests.
and then you can also just spam darknet (and make torrents, etc etc) with fake copies of all books in your system. Where applicable (more so with novels than with technical books) just leave out the last chapter so people get 90% of it and are pissed and want to read the rest.
hmm... why am I telling you people these ideas.... I sort of feel like this could make money... maybe I should just be coding...