Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
We still have the issue of the thread, though, which hasn't been answered to anyone's satisfaction: Authors have a concern about their copyrights and protection of same (justified or not, but there nonetheless). Can e-publishing do anything to alleviate that concern, and thereby open and improve the e-publishing market, which is the point of the thing after all?
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I don't know whether it can. The question is whether it
should.
Authors are concerned about their copyrights and protection. Fine. They don't
have to authorize an electronic version. If they sell a book to a publisher, they can specify "no ebook edition" as part of the contract. I doubt a publisher will
insist on an electronic version to do the deal at all. Or perhaps the publisher (or author's agent) will propose "Only a digital edition through Amazon for the Kindle, with DRM to make sure people cant steal it." If the author goes for that, also fine.
If an author chooses not to swim in the ebook pool because "Hey, there are sharks out there!",
tough. That's
their loss. There are more ebooks out there I want to read now than I have time for. I might miss a few folks who won't jump in the pool out of fear, but I won't miss them
that badly. And they may lose potential sales simply because they
don't have an electronic edition.
Meanwhile, other authors will see the potential, do deals to get books issued as ebooks, sell books, and make money. Losses to the darknet? Probably, but with no firm numbers on how much, it's pointless to even be concerned. Worry about increasing the sales you
make, not cutting your losses on piracy.
______
Dennis