Quote:
Originally Posted by twowheels
They could even work out a deal where the used ebook sale gives a small chunk of the money to the publisher... say $.50... so, when a book first comes out, the MUST HAVE NOW pre-order people order a bunch of copies... then over time the used market price could go down... so...
eBook released for $20 when new to maximize the profit on the MUST HAVE NOW crowd. After 2-6 months the new price drops to a more reasonable $10 to reflect the paperback price, and the used market is opened up and the used price could be $5. Amazon keeps $.50 for their trouble (keeping track of licensing), and the publisher gets $.50. People who must have it and can't find a used copy online could get it for $10.
Each used copy could foreseeably be resold 100 times, meaning that the publisher gets the original sale, plus $50, whereas with paper books now they only get the original sale. This should help account for the fact that an easier to use used market would impact new sales.
Moreover, the new buyer is out $14 at most, more likely $6. The used buyer is only out $1 and has sufficient budget to buy more books than they already do! At this price point most downloaders would probably say that it wasn't worth the trouble to torrent the book and worry about quality/legal issues. Even if they implemented a "wear and tear, 25 resells" this would be better for everybody, but it seems that the last buyer should get an even better price since they can't resell it.
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I think you are on the right track. The transaction price is to low to satisfy some of the parties. How would you keep the original buyer from keeping a copy on a SD card etc? Perhaps a transfer/license charge? How would it be collected? Which party is responsible to pay the fee? What about transfers of a book I receive second hand and wish to transfer again? Clearly all this is possible, but with so many players involved it would require a separate org. I just don't believe there will be agreement by everyone limiting their autonomy and additional levels of complexity.