Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
What I see as far as the darknet is concerned is that most eBooks being shared were eBooks that were not available when they were being first shared. So if publishers were to release more books as eBooks, then the need to create illegal eBooks would not happen as much.
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I agree. Personally I hope it will be the case, as more and more eBooks are published and is will be easier to buy them.
Today, the fact that the book is available in an online store doesn't mean that everyone can buy it. In most of the countries of the world it's now quite easy to get access to a high speed internet connection (at least in heavier populated areas). But it's very hard to get access to any means that make online purchase available. You need to have at least a PayPal account, and more often one of the commonly accepted credit cards, like Visa or Mastercard - and those either don't offer their services at all in many countries, or you need to have much more money to get a credit card than you need to buy a book.
In Poland, I had access to Internet with reasonable speed (20 kB/s dl) on the university I was studying at for the last 10 years. First possibility to get a credit card for online shopping turned up around that time, but you had to have some thousands of dollars (in Polish currency) on your account for the bank to consider such service. Only 5 years ago Paypal started offering its services in Poland - and that's supposed to be Europe. People here still prefer to get their money from their employer directly, in bank notes, and many people I know don't have a bank account, as that can be traced and taxed by the state, when it needs money again.
Please take into account all those people who can see all the books in the online stores, but can't buy them - and perhaps won't have a bank account ever in their lives. Yet darknet is available to everyone who happens to sit in front of the keyboard in an online cafe.