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Originally Posted by Belle2Be
It's less trouble than getting all the software/hardware it takes to convert a file.
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Hardware. You need a PC. There are something over a
billion of those worldwide.
Software: You need something that can take an existing ebook, strip the DRM, and optionally convert to a different format. The tools to do that are free, open source, and not at all hard to find and learn to use if you are motivated to do so in the first place.
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It's not just less likely, its MUCH less likely. Look at VHS's, for example. Cassette tapes. Soon enough, CD's and DVD's. While someone may still have the correct files and device to read that file, it'll evolve enough that that particular file will be useless.
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Physical storage mediums certainly evolve, and I spend the odd hour dealing with the fact, and getting data off an obsolete medium and onto something more accessible. Data file formats also evolve, and I may spend even more time doing format conversion. But neither of those concerns are relevant to what we're discussing, which is the ease of copying and sharing an ebook.
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A monkey could copy a paper book. It takes one large green button.
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A monkey with access to a fancy copier that can automagically seperate that bound book into pages and copy the pages, then properly collate the output. Otherwise, it's a lengthy manual process. (I've spent the odd hour dealing with volume copiers, too, and have in the past been a "key operator" for such devices.)
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Not a huge percentage of readers know how to copy or share an ebook. It's only easy and fast if you have the hardware and software and know-how to do so.
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It doesn't
take a huge percentage to do it. You just need one person motivated to do it for any particular book. Once done, endless copies can be made, and the spread can be viral.
And once the copy is made and uploaded, it's not terribly difficult to find and download. Sure, that particular ebook file format may become obsolete, and in ten years it may be fun to find something to read it with, but for most books, in ten years no one will be
interested in reading it and it won't
matter.
I think you overestimate the difficulty of the process.
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Dennis