Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
Actually DRM is effective to deterring casual sharing by the nontech consumer. What theauthor and publisher is rightly afraid of is some teenager buying a copy of the latest vampire bestseller and forwarding it to her peeps on Facebook, who will then forward it to THEIR peeps on Facebook, etc.
Anyone who doesnt think large scale casual sharing does not pose a serious threat to the revenues of authors and publishers is either indifferent to the rights of authors and publishers hasn't really thought the problem through.
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The underlying assumption of your argument is that sharing reduces sales.
But is that assumption correct?
I can think of at least three possible factors that counter it.
One is that some of the sharees (i.e., the ones who get the ebook from the original purchaser) might not have bought the book themselves, but are willing to read it if it's free. These people are never going to be customers, so we can't say that they are lost customers reducing sales.
A second is that the pool of sharees may not be as great as one might think. That is, while the teenager sharing vampire books on Facebook might
distribute files to 100 of her BFFs, only five of them are actually readers who have EBRs.
A third is that there is an advertising effect resulting from sharing books, such that more
new buyers might result from people being exposed to a particular author. This is a situation where there might be no lost sale on the shared book, plus there might be a gained sale on the next book. Of course, that book might be shared, too, but my point is that we are not at all certain of the overall longterm effect on sales. They might well increase, both in numbers and net revenue.
This whole issue is also related to the question of pricing and convenience. It may well be that the publishing industry and authors are going to have to accept lower prices for their books. It may be that lower prices could be offset by increased sales, and that in fact, lower prices, plus no DRM, plus cheap entry level EBRS would induce increased sales and result in greater profits.