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Originally Posted by stonetools
NOw you pretty much admitted above that you expect large scale casual sharing to follow the abandonment of DRM.
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No, I'm saying there's rather large filesharing going on now, on both DRM'd and non-DRM'd content. I'm saying removing DRM will have no notable impact on filesharing, which is already widespread, nor on sales, except to make them increase in most cases.
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You also argue that casual sharing is fine for obscure auithors and pass over in silence its likely effects on best selling authors.
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Dan Brown, Stephen King, Stephanie Meyers and JK Rowling are already massively available through download sites. I firmly believe they won't be *more* shared if they remove DRM (or, in Rowling's case, release a legit ebook version.)
You can't get much more shared than "a complete digital version is available days before the book is released."
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If you think that's evidence enough to risk the future of publishing industry, fine. I don't-and the folks with actual skin in the game don't either. It's easy for some guy on the Innternet to commit the livelihoods of millions in the publishing industry to gamble. Not so easy for the people in the industry .
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I'm their potential future customer. I'm raising more of their potential future customers, and teaching their friends how ebooks work. I spend money on ebooks, and I don't spend money on DRM.
Publishers are, of course, free to ignore me because I was never part of the hardcover buying crowd. I'm not going to run out of stuff to read.
As Worldwalker said, the anti-DRM crowd has no personal gain tied up in our opinions. We have access to the content we want. It's not going to be more available if DRM is removed--although it might be more available in locations we're willing to pay for. Nothing but our own ethics keeps us from accessing anything currently digitally available, and a great deal not currently being sold.
We're mostly sorry for those authors who are stuck in publishing contracts that prevent them from getting Konrath's level of success, and saddened and annoyed at publishers who think their current model is sustainable. And some of us are rather amused at the idea that we'll instantly become less ethical if there are less techno-nuisances involved in our purchases.