Would you argue that a writer sending out review copies of a dead tree book to get the word out about their new work is being unethical, and if they do that they should send a free book to anyone who asks, ever? Because that's the same principle. With ebooks having no material costs, giving away a large number of free copies to people fishing for publicity is feasible, where giving away a large number of paper books would require rather more up-front investment and involve a greater risk of loss.
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Originally Posted by Giggleton
Yes, but what I am referring to is offering a book at a price of zero for say a month, and then raising the price, to say ten dollars.
Why do most of us assume that this is ethical?
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Why not? People are not entitled to free books.
An author offering something for free for a short time and for money later is better for me-the-reader than them not offering it for free, because I might get something for free.
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Originally Posted by Giggleton
Would it be ethical to redistribute the book that you obtained at a price of zero to others if the price was maintained at zero? To me the answer is yes.
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While it is free, OK.
I'd probably still send the link where they can download the book themselves rather than sending a copy.
Note that if a publisher or author gives away books for free, but requires people to sign up to their website, the book is not free, but traded for sharing whatever information about me they gather in the process.
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Originally Posted by Giggleton
If you are against agency pricing, which I think most of the readers here are, then you would also be against the ability of an author to raise the price of their book.
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I think if the agency publishers fixed their prices closer to the "less than $5" you find more commonly with self-published ebooks, there'd be a lot fewer complaints.