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Caltsar · 01-27-2011, 04:21 PM

People seem to pirate books, music, software, movies, etc for a few reasons.

Availability
Price
Convenience
Quality
DRM issues
"Just Because"

The majority of pirates would likely prefer to obtain something legally, but the barriers in place for digital goods are often too high to beat piracy... and you don't have to beat it completely. You just need a viable alternative to the illegal method.

You need to make you books available. On multiple stores, and in multiple formats. (ePub and Amazon's seem to be the minimum to get to most everyone) Ideally one format will ultimately work on all devices the same way that mp3 can be played on nearly anything. You should bring back out of print books and when an author puts out a new book in a series, make the WHOLE series available to purchase (maybe even at a "bundle price" that would get people who already own some of the books to buy them again. More sales are good, and I never said the publishers and sellers would be completely altruistic!)

The price needs to be more nimble. The author and the publisher need their compensation... contracts at their end should be able to work that out... maybe even have their compensation be higher for the first month or thereabouts so those who are willing to spend more to have it quickly can give the publisher extra profits. The store can then price the books according to demand on a... say... weekly basis. (agreements with publishers could set minimum prices? obviously higher profits work out better for everyone, so prices would never get lower than the maximum most people want to pay)

Amazon has convenience down, and B&N is nearly as good. Some other sites and marketplaces simply don't have this down. Using Adobe Digital Editions often causes major problems, many have multiple step processes in obtaining your books. This needs to be fixed.

While quality usually isn't an issue with marketplace books, sometimes the pirated versions are higher quality. Publishers need to put some money into proofreaders to at least get rid of the glaring OCR errors that seem to be common in eBooks right now.

DRM needs to be either standardized or removed. Anyone who wants to pirate is completely able to. DRM can be added on the fly for the nook or kindle loaning features. That would prevent casual piracy by the VAST majority of people (even if just by giving a warning about the fact that you don't own a book loaned to you). Most people simply don't bother to pull the books off their devices, and grabbing more marketshare by the people who do know what they're doing by allowing them to move easily between devices may be a good thing.

Obviously you can't get rid of all the piracy, but allowing the marketplaces to be as nimble as the piracy scene while making it legal and more convenient can only be a good thing for everyone. The consumers can't have it the way they want, but there are good compromises that can make it better for everyone... if only the media companies would realize this.

01-27-2011, 04:21 PM	#23
Caltsar Zealot Posts: 135 Karma: 86951 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Minnesota Device: nook Touch, iPad, iPhone	People seem to pirate books, music, software, movies, etc for a few reasons. Availability Price Convenience Quality DRM issues "Just Because" The majority of pirates would likely prefer to obtain something legally, but the barriers in place for digital goods are often too high to beat piracy... and you don't have to beat it completely. You just need a viable alternative to the illegal method. You need to make you books available. On multiple stores, and in multiple formats. (ePub and Amazon's seem to be the minimum to get to most everyone) Ideally one format will ultimately work on all devices the same way that mp3 can be played on nearly anything. You should bring back out of print books and when an author puts out a new book in a series, make the WHOLE series available to purchase (maybe even at a "bundle price" that would get people who already own some of the books to buy them again. More sales are good, and I never said the publishers and sellers would be completely altruistic!) The price needs to be more nimble. The author and the publisher need their compensation... contracts at their end should be able to work that out... maybe even have their compensation be higher for the first month or thereabouts so those who are willing to spend more to have it quickly can give the publisher extra profits. The store can then price the books according to demand on a... say... weekly basis. (agreements with publishers could set minimum prices? obviously higher profits work out better for everyone, so prices would never get lower than the maximum most people want to pay) Amazon has convenience down, and B&N is nearly as good. Some other sites and marketplaces simply don't have this down. Using Adobe Digital Editions often causes major problems, many have multiple step processes in obtaining your books. This needs to be fixed. While quality usually isn't an issue with marketplace books, sometimes the pirated versions are higher quality. Publishers need to put some money into proofreaders to at least get rid of the glaring OCR errors that seem to be common in eBooks right now. DRM needs to be either standardized or removed. Anyone who wants to pirate is completely able to. DRM can be added on the fly for the nook or kindle loaning features. That would prevent casual piracy by the VAST majority of people (even if just by giving a warning about the fact that you don't own a book loaned to you). Most people simply don't bother to pull the books off their devices, and grabbing more marketshare by the people who do know what they're doing by allowing them to move easily between devices may be a good thing. Obviously you can't get rid of all the piracy, but allowing the marketplaces to be as nimble as the piracy scene while making it legal and more convenient can only be a good thing for everyone. The consumers can't have it the way they want, but there are good compromises that can make it better for everyone... if only the media companies would realize this.