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Nick_Djinn · 01-26-2011, 06:22 PM

If you cant beat them, join them.

But seriously, how can you make the purchased copies more desirable and convenient than the pirated copies? If I download an ebook via torrent it will be finished faster than the checkout process, and I dont have to validate it or jump through any hoops. Why would I subject myself to difficulty just so I can pay more money?

You should also think about charging a fraction of the current price. A physical book has production and shipping and sales costs. How can you justify retail price when you cut out the manufacturer, the shipping, the distributor and the merchants and their employees? If you insist on robbing us then we are likely going to rob you instead. There is no justification for charging $17 for 2mb of data. The "convenience" factor is BS. Its equally convenient to walk into a book shop and probably more fulfilling as an outing, unless you are in the boonies with no culture or decent book shops.

If ebooks are dirt cheap, downloading is fast and user friendly, and the copyright protection is automatic requiring no effort on my part or a 3g/internet connection, then it might be worth while for more people. People might get the books for cheaper, but you make up for it in volume.

Another approach would be to EMBRACE the distribution of FREE books for everyone.

Where else can you do this? The PUBLIC LIBRARY! The government provides ebooks to the public free of charge. They want people to read, and the only bottle neck up until this time was money and physical space......But we are going to hold ourselves back as a society to protect the private profits of Amazon.com at the expense to our greater society? Ridiculous.

How about this....We give away the books to anyone who wants them, for free, a limited number proportionate to what an advanced reader could read or what you are allowed to check out of a library at one time. You can keep the book if you want it, but the book only works on one physical device, and to get it on another device is free but requires you to check it out again for that device, and goes towards your limit. There is no limit to how many the library can give out.

The Library gets funding and pays 15 cents, or whatever amount, for every time the book is checked out to each device. They are not intended to be swapped to different devices, but there is no cost to get a new copy for another device so little incentive to work around this. The author gets a mere 10 cents every time the book is checked out, perhaps more for new releases up to a dollar with a co-payment required from the reader (waived for low income and those on public assistance), and if 10 million people read your book as a new release you still get ten million dollars, and your book from 20 years ago still gives you 10 cents every time its checked out by anyone.....and the volume of people checking out your book will increase due to the price tag, and you dont have to have some corporation siphoning off the profits to represent you. The artist gets it all.

This service via the public library would be paid for with taxes, and co-payments from members might be required based on how new the book is and their status.

It makes no sense to put an artificial limit on how many people can check out an 'e-book'.

There is no reason to put corporate profits before our society....We WANT people to read. If it costs only 15 cents to get somebody to read a book, we would be wealthier as a society. Our society would be more intelligent and competitive in the world. The problem with most of the books in the library, that we lend for FREE is that we are not getting enough people to read them. There is a shortage of people reading FREE books. We can fix that by sending them whatever reading material they want, courtesy of your local public library, directly to your device absolutely free of charge, with no artificial limits on how many people can read it at one time because we are not here to protect corporations like Amazon.

Even if you make them erased in 2 weeks, as long as you can check them out again for free (another 15 cents to the author every 2 weeks), this is a CHEAP way of getting people to read. Well worth it if it enriches our society, especially for the poorer members who could benefit most from increasing their knowledge and self education.

Maybe there can be programs for cheap basic readers that you can apply for no more than once every 5 years.

01-26-2011, 06:22 PM	#1
Nick_Djinn Member Posts: 22 Karma: 50256 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Boox, Pocketbook, Asus	How to deal with ebook piracy If you cant beat them, join them. But seriously, how can you make the purchased copies more desirable and convenient than the pirated copies? If I download an ebook via torrent it will be finished faster than the checkout process, and I dont have to validate it or jump through any hoops. Why would I subject myself to difficulty just so I can pay more money? You should also think about charging a fraction of the current price. A physical book has production and shipping and sales costs. How can you justify retail price when you cut out the manufacturer, the shipping, the distributor and the merchants and their employees? If you insist on robbing us then we are likely going to rob you instead. There is no justification for charging $17 for 2mb of data. The "convenience" factor is BS. Its equally convenient to walk into a book shop and probably more fulfilling as an outing, unless you are in the boonies with no culture or decent book shops. If ebooks are dirt cheap, downloading is fast and user friendly, and the copyright protection is automatic requiring no effort on my part or a 3g/internet connection, then it might be worth while for more people. People might get the books for cheaper, but you make up for it in volume. Another approach would be to EMBRACE the distribution of FREE books for everyone. Where else can you do this? The PUBLIC LIBRARY! The government provides ebooks to the public free of charge. They want people to read, and the only bottle neck up until this time was money and physical space......But we are going to hold ourselves back as a society to protect the private profits of Amazon.com at the expense to our greater society? Ridiculous. How about this....We give away the books to anyone who wants them, for free, a limited number proportionate to what an advanced reader could read or what you are allowed to check out of a library at one time. You can keep the book if you want it, but the book only works on one physical device, and to get it on another device is free but requires you to check it out again for that device, and goes towards your limit. There is no limit to how many the library can give out. The Library gets funding and pays 15 cents, or whatever amount, for every time the book is checked out to each device. They are not intended to be swapped to different devices, but there is no cost to get a new copy for another device so little incentive to work around this. The author gets a mere 10 cents every time the book is checked out, perhaps more for new releases up to a dollar with a co-payment required from the reader (waived for low income and those on public assistance), and if 10 million people read your book as a new release you still get ten million dollars, and your book from 20 years ago still gives you 10 cents every time its checked out by anyone.....and the volume of people checking out your book will increase due to the price tag, and you dont have to have some corporation siphoning off the profits to represent you. The artist gets it all. This service via the public library would be paid for with taxes, and co-payments from members might be required based on how new the book is and their status. It makes no sense to put an artificial limit on how many people can check out an 'e-book'. There is no reason to put corporate profits before our society....We WANT people to read. If it costs only 15 cents to get somebody to read a book, we would be wealthier as a society. Our society would be more intelligent and competitive in the world. The problem with most of the books in the library, that we lend for FREE is that we are not getting enough people to read them. There is a shortage of people reading FREE books. We can fix that by sending them whatever reading material they want, courtesy of your local public library, directly to your device absolutely free of charge, with no artificial limits on how many people can read it at one time because we are not here to protect corporations like Amazon. Even if you make them erased in 2 weeks, as long as you can check them out again for free (another 15 cents to the author every 2 weeks), this is a CHEAP way of getting people to read. Well worth it if it enriches our society, especially for the poorer members who could benefit most from increasing their knowledge and self education. Maybe there can be programs for cheap basic readers that you can apply for no more than once every 5 years. Last edited by Nick_Djinn; 01-26-2011 at 06:27 PM.