Quote:
Originally Posted by Olympus
In another forum-thread it is mentioned that publishers calculate that people forward a p-book 6 to 10 times, newspapers are shared between neighbours, dvd-s are viewed in a family gathering, some tape and fastforward a tv show to skip commercials and there breaking the business-model based on advertising. Although your and my view on this topic differ very much, IMHO your piracy (= "not paying for the service by each individual that receives the benefits of a service") is part of the calculation of each realistic business model.
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Actually, only the part about fast-forwarding TV shows to skip commercials messes up the advertising-based subsidy method. Group viewing and sharing of advertiser-subsidized media actually increases the "eyes per ad" that the advertiser pays for, which is what they want. Of course, in reality advertisers and producers adjust their prices to take into account these calculations.
And BTW, this is one of the reasons many DVDs are "rigged" to play the main content only after at least one viewing per DVD player of the advertising content (their way of defeating the "fast forward" trick).
As I said, there is no direct evidence that piracy leads to later purchases by pirates, or that pirates are effective promoters of material to paying customers. In general, piracy leads to the promotion of material to other pirates, and most likely, more piracy. They simply amount to net loss, just like theft. Net gains from popular venues (like Amazon and MobiPocket) and reviewed texts by known reviewers are much greater than any contribution pirates make.