Quote:
Originally Posted by wyndslash
wow, that's really stupid of them. besides, they can't let pirates stop them from profiting from an emerging market. time stops for no one, and pirates have and will always be there. i'd like to think that there much more people out there who would buy author's backlists if they like even one of their works. and to be honest, if the publishers were friendlier towards their customers, that they would be able to win over more customers from the dark side. and the people who would pirate no matter what are just well...they're something else, that's for sure.
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Exactly. Having a large number of downloads indicates, that there is a demand.
Just refusing to meet peoples needs is not the best way to win them over... and I don't mean the dark side only, because sometimes it is not even a matter of will. There are books in this site which you can't buy new. Anywhere. All you can hope is for street sellers selling their libraries. Now this market is getting more and more popular, because a lot of books never get reprinted, but are still demanded.
I have to stop now, I can talk about this for hours and unfortunately it won't change a thing. I actually discussed this matter with a publisher. The discussion went a bit like:
Me: Why no ebooks?
Publ: Too much money to invest (DRM, rights for ebook which are not the same as for pbook, new translation(?!), ..)
Me: OK, then choose not a foreign author and loose the DRM, it's no use anyway. That way all you have to do is to post the text and set a price. Can't be too much money. And there are established paying models for example using SMS which have proven to be very user friendly and widely accepted. Test the market.
Publ: YOU, don't tell me how to run my business! I've been publishing before you were born! I'm so big (yes, he actually said that), if I tell the other publishers to stop publishing, they will and then we will see how your lot (readers) fares
You, stealing *** don't deserve ebooks and you won't have them!
Me: speechless.
On the small bright side - the library website is online
*, there are also a few independent publishing sites where you can find ebooks you can buy. I try to buy all I really think interesting, even if I already have it as pbook of another ebook, just to show my support. With the hope that one day some &$&^&^$#s will open their eyes.
* Here is to say, that the matter of "is this legal" is subject to how you read the law. It is said that open for everyone public institutions/libraries can reproduce in any form incl. digital texts all kind ob literature in our language in order to provide social service and availability as long as there is no profit from it. Publishers argue, that the site is not open for all, public, library, etc. The fact remains, that as of this moment there is no law suit against the site owners, which speaks for itself.