Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
I'm sure she didn't have access to the l33t book fencing clubs, but I think her experience is valuable because it suggests what the piracy experience will be like for more typical readers (although as a MR participant, she is already somewhat non-typical).
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The experience is not valuable at all. And the problems are with the interpretations of results:
- Assumption that "an average reader" who was exploring piracy sites will give up after such an experience and go on with the legal route forever and ever. The amount of money spent of books is, on average, relatively small, but it ads up over time. "An average reader" will be tempted both by the stories of someone he knows, complaints by authors, articles about the internet piracy, etc. If he has crossed the moral line once, it is most likely that he will try again, it is most likely that he will figure out that he has missed "the major sites".
- Assumption that poor quality of pirated material will never change. This amounts to belief that there will be no increase in proliferation of "DRM liberated" content (which is equivalent to the retail versions), and also assumes that pirated versions will never be proofed. In the rare case where retail versions of e-books are proofed you end up with the
better version than the one offered for sale.
What really threatens ebooks in particular is the high "return" on the activity. The amount of time/bandwidth necessary to download an ebook is infinitesimally small compared to, say, latest blockbuster offered in HD, and the result provides days of entertainment for the one interested in ebook piracy in the first place.