Quote:
Originally Posted by C. R. Hindmarsh
Interesting survey. I've always been of the opinion that anti-piracy wars and DRM do more harm than good, especially on items like ebooks and music. All they do is frustrate legitimate consumers.
It's like when you buy a DVD and you have to sit through 5 minutes of FBI warnings and things telling you not to pirate. I bought the DVD didn't I? If I pirated it I wouldn't have to put up with all this!
/rant
I agree with most of the survey responders that thought file-sharing increases exposure of their work. Sure, it's not legal, but you can't do much about it so if you're an artist you might as well get what you can out of it.
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I rip all my DVD's to AVI. We have a HTPC connected to our main TV, so it is so much easier to simply navigate with the remote and pless the play button.
The problem with the semi annual industry frontpiece profit/loss announcements is the inflated losses due to piracy. They equate every download to a lost sale, but that is not really the case. It is pretty likely that a lot of those downloads were by people who would have never have purchased the movie/music track anyway.
Same would go with ebooks as well. Certainly not all downloads, but a few, as there a lot of "bundles" available with pretty much hundreds if not thousands of ebooks contained within. Even if you only wanted one ebook, you are saddled with any you will not read. Or perhaps find an author you previously had never heard of or never considered reading their books before.
Removal of restrictions such as DRM, geographic locations and more competitive pricing would reduce casual piracy, leaving only those who would still pirate regardless of any reforms made.
I have lost count at the number of times I have to try as many as possible ebook estores in an attempt to circumvent geo restrictions.
A very interesting article, thanks for sharing.