Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
However, we regularly hear from people on these forums who seem to give the impression that it only takes a small transgression from an author to satisfy their justification to take their e-book from the darknet and not pay for it. "Have you seen him... with that stupid big nose? I'm taking Big Nose's book! Ha!"
The claim that "a book taken from the darknet isn't a lost sale, because they wouldn't have bought it anyway" is one that the publishing industry has not yet accepted (and for the record, nor have I).
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The big problem with these moralistic arguments against piracy is that they really don't solve anything. DRM sucks because it trashes your rights; in my case, DRM has cost me lots of money- books I bought that were DRM'd are no longer available to me.
So, pirates are bad, and DRM is bad, and authors have a moral right to earn money off their e-books. I have heard this hashed and rehashed on tens if not hundreds of threads here. But still nothing is solved. How is piracy reduced? By reducing prices. Same as with movie piracy- drop the price of a DVD down to 5 or 10 dollars, and many fewer people will go through the hassle of downloading from the net. Sure, some will- but they are a small element, the same sort of cheapskates that will re-use chewing gum.
And it makes a great deal of sense that a book downloaded from the "darknet' is not a lost sale- lots of people aren't going to buy an e-book that costs 15 or 20 dollars. Just like lots of people won't blow the money to buy a hardback book- they will wait and borrow it from the library or from a friend. It doesn't kill my budget to buy a book or two- I do it all the time. Make it easy for me to buy an e-book, price it fairly, and don't screw me with DRM, and I'll buy it. But don't treat me like a rube......