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Originally Posted by stonetools
I just put Girl with the Dragoon Tattoo into a Google search box and went 5 pages down without finding aan illegal book site.
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Did you try it with the word "ebook?" I got two hits for unauthorized free download sites on the first page of results.
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What you kind of seem to be saying is that authors and publishers shouldn't even try to use the limited tools available to secure their rights, if there is a chance that their efforts might inconvenience some consumer somewhere. Needless to say, that's not the standard with any physical product.
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They're welcome to use any tools they like.
And I'm free to shop from someone else.
I'm not saying publishers are evil (although I think some of them are rather vile); I'm saying they're using an increasingly-flawed business model. I'm not required to feed their paranoia by agreeing that they'll fail if they ... allow me to use what I buy like Baen, Samhain and Smashwords do.
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Radio Shack storeowners lock up their Ipods beyond the counter. That's inconvenient to me and any potential buyer.
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But I'm not required to go through their locks *after* I buy. The issue isn't how much control they have over their products before purchase; it's about how I'm allowed to use it after I give them money.
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Sure in a perfect world, we could say "Trust the consumer not to be a jerk about large scale sharing" . BUt I don't know if I would bet MY livelihood on consumers not being such jerks.
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Baen does. O'Reilly does--and their customers are digirati geeks. JA Konrath does. Joshua Graham does. Amanda Hocking does.
Not everyone who's bet on "the customers aren't jerks" is making a good living. But then, not everyone who hasn't, is making a good living either.
The issue isn't whether it's possible to make a living without DRM. Obviously, it is. The issue is whether DRM makes it easier to make a living at writing. Got any evidence to support that?
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I guess I'm unwilling to ask publishers and authors to bet THEIR livelihoods. If it turns out wrong, you'll just say "Oops!" and move on. They won't have that option.
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I'm not asking them to bet anything. I'm pointing out that until they change their business model, I'm buying from the competition.
They need to take a long, hard look at how many sales DRM causes, by preventing easy free downloads, vs how many it loses by annoying customers. Especially since that second category never gets smaller.