Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
Using your wormhole again? You seem to have no problem knowing what might have been when it suits you.
Maybe it was this way: People wanted ebooks. Pirate saw the demand and filled it before the industry could. (with out costs or legal concerns it's easy to act quickly.)
Now by the time legitimate industry got into it, the presence of the pirates convinced them they needed these DRM measures, because it was already demonstrated people couldn't be trusted to respect copyright if it was free and easy to cheat.
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No wormhole required, it's just (very recent) history. A lot of people (me included) thought ebooks were a stupid idea, there was certainlly no commericial interest in them from publishers. Even now they seem to be an afterthought.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
And on a mere point of logic: If the pirate community is 'mostly folks who would not pay for the books no matter what' than how can the existence of a pirate community correctly indicate a potential for profit?
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Software pirates have always been interested in buying hardware to play their content on. But once the hardware has been created "normal" people buy it and then they want legitimate content for it.
mp3 followed the same route, thought it took off a lot quicker than ebooks. People made their own mp3s and put them on the internet, some company (Riovolt, I think -- and the RIAA tried to sue them for making it) made a hardware mp3 player, "normal" people bought them as well as pirates, and eventually the music industry decided to allow people to buy mp3s.