[Halk]

Ok, this is possibly a bit of a touchy subject, but one I have a bit of an interest in discussing.

If it isn't easy to buy books online, if I'm hit with DRM that causes me annoyances, or if the quality of the product (i.e. the formatting etc) is poor... then I'll probably go and get it pirate.

I'm not saying I won't "do" DRM. If it causes me little or no issues then I'm fine with it. I'd prefer if it wasn't there, but no big deal.

As far as games for the PC, I'll download it pirate, and if I delete it after the first load I won't buy it. If I don't delete it, I'll go buy it there and then. I'll download a demo instead if one is available.

It's a while since I bought any music, however I'll usually buy a CD since I'll know exactly what I'm after. Now that DRM is vanishing and bitrate is increasing I may buy it online. I have sometimes downloaded music "pirate" when I'm waiting on CDs to be delivered. Also if I cannot find music available to buy, I'd pirate it - and buy it later if I saw it available.

So what does that mean? It means that I'll do what I feel is right, rather than what others believe is right. In other words, as long as I'm happy that I'm keeping to my own standards I'm fine.

If it became impossible to download games "pirate", then I'd probably buy less games. Before I buy it I'll need to know it's worthwhile. So things like Civilization I'll buy because well, they've not released one yet that I grudged paying for. If I don't already expect it to be good, and there's no demo then there's no sale.

As far as the music is concerned, I'm buying all I can there, so I'm happy with that.

However when it comes to books there's a new dimension. When my Cybook arrives and I want to read a book on it, if it's only available on paper, do I pirate it, and tell myself I'll buy it later.. but perhaps it'll never appear later. I've not yet decided what's "right" there.

I do realise pirated stuff tends to be of lower quality. I'd imagine for books that may mean missing or repeated pages, wrong words or letters, or incomplete. If I read a book a week then the 5 quid or whatever it costs is going to have almost zero impact on me financially, so I have no problems paying for it. I'm happier to pay for something than to steal it. However if it means I get a horribly formatted book that I can't change then I'm going to be annoyed. Thankfully I hear that DRM can be stripped from ebooks, which I would expect means that I can fix the formatting if required. Also if I'm buying the thing then I have the ability to go back and say "Erm, scuse me but where's chapter 12!".

What does all that mean for retailers, who want to sell me books?

It means that they'll have to make sure I don't feel like I'm jumping through hoops just to buy something. I believe that this has already happened to MP3s, retailers now sell a product that is much easier to work with, and has much fewer downsides, so that piracy becomes less attractive.

Am I alone in thinking this way, or, as I suspect, it's pretty much the way everybody thinks?