Originally Posted by Harmon
It seems to me that "piracy" is like shoplifting. A certain amount of it is just going to happen. The problem is not to prevent it, but to limit it to the least possible amount, taking into account the marginal cost of additional limitation.
I don't think that piracy is a very big factor with ebooks. If ebooks are widely available, useable cross-device, and relatively inexpensive, readers will buy them rather than pirate them because they'd rather be reading. Piracy will occur when books are not in ebook form, or are locked up with DRM, or are overpriced in the eyes of the general reader.
What JR Rawling is doing with the Potter books should be an interesting test of my hypothesis. No DRM. A watermark to identify anyone who makes the books widely available to non-purchasers. I don't know what the pricing structure will be, but if it's low enough, and you can get the books for your specific EBR right from the Potter site, who is going to chase around the internet and waste time with torrents, risking viruses etc?
Make it easy to buy, and pirates will be a nuisance, but not a real threat.
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