[Prestidigitweeze]

I, too, thought of the hard-copy-as-voucher option for publishers:-- a receipt or physical copy from a physical book = a voucher for all or part of the cost of the ebook edition.

I think that's likely to happen, but only in certain cases.

I can see a publisher looking at viable marketing strategies for a specific book and deciding to put out the physical copy first and the ebook eight months to a year later. I can also see their offering the digital copy as part of the incentive for buying the physical book: telling customers the ebook will be free at a later time with proof of purchase of the physical book. In that case, they've balanced the projected liabilities and market trajectory of a book and decided the resultant loss would be worth it.

But even if publishers were forced to be more fair about pricing and DRM, I doubt the voucher strategy would be implemented widely for this reason: Many who bought physical copies and knew they would receive ebook versions would keep their physical copies in mint or (if sealed in plastic) unopened condition. They would then resell them immediately at a discount and keep the proof of purchase. This puts publishers in the position of potentially selling half as many copies at launch as they might have without the deal. Overnight, launch copies would compete with as-new previously purchased copies at reduced prices.

Of course, publishers could demand that people send in the cover of the book, or tear out a page, as their proof of purchase, but then customers would be asked to damage the physical copies of the new books they've bought. Not the best marketing strategy in an age in which physical books are becoming the equivalent of vinyl LPs.

On the nether hind, if physical books stop selling at all but the commitment to publishing them remains, then half of a live market will beat one hundred percent of a dead one.

Two tangential questions:

1. If a publisher acquires the rights to a book under copyright and republishes it, do you still feel you're justified in acquiring a copy illegally if you've reimbursed the author and the first publisher but your downloaded version is copied from an edition put out by the second publisher?

2. If the pirating party from whom and/or owners of the site where you've downloaded an illegal copy are revealed to be involved in organized crime, and to profit from your link-clicking through advertising and traffic, would it prevent you from downloading a book to know that you might be a small part of financing activities that are more harmful than piracy?

I ask not to try to convince people to refrain from downloading pirated copies but because I'm curious whether the above conditions would make a difference to them.