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Originally Posted by tompe
If you look at the collections you can download is is not reasonable that people downloading a collection will read all the books in the collection or most of them.
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I never said they would, and so what? I have the entire Baen Free Library collection, including website and CDs. I haven't read all of it, though I expect to read the majority as time goes by.
And how much is downloaded as individual books rather than collections?
Quote:
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I think this is wrong. It is not simple a distribution method. It is a technical distribution method with an attached sub culture. It is the social thing that is an important aspect of it. And the collecting habit is part of the social thing.
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It is more than one technical distribution method. And granted the attached sub-culture and collecting habit, I don't see how that matters one way or the other.
The question is whether an author's sales are helped, hindered by, or have no effect from electronic downloads. A book downloaded but never read has no effect at all. If the downloader isn't motivated to
read it, they'd hardly have been motivated to
buy it. It's only the case where the downloader
does read the darknet copy that matters. Will they be motivated to buy that book in a legit edition, or other books by that author? Or will the darknet download satisfy the desire to read the book, and cost the author a potential sale?
I don't know, and at present, we
can't know, because there is no way to measure the effects.
My personal feeling is that the darknet isn't a threat to an author's living, simply because the culture surrounding it is a small fraction of the total market.
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Dennis