Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
These days, some of the pirating is done because of the price.
|
Put it that way, and it's undeniable.
Quote:
|
These are people who don't buy hardcover and try to find books at the lowest cost possible.
|
That's me.
Quote:
|
Not everyone can afford $14.99 for an eBook. Even $12.99 is a lot.
|
Yep.
The median income worldwide — the amount that is dead middle between the least and the highest amounts — is $850 US Dollars (USD).*
The median for people literate in English is a lot higher, but hundreds of millions of people who speak English (especially as a second language) could not afford these prices, any more than they could afford prices in the range you recommend. With luck, they have access to a public library or village reading room.
Buying your own book is not like buying a loaf of bread. Now, the price of that loaf has gone up a lot in the last few years, and I consider it a real problem. The fact that I have to use the library, or, in rare cases, wait a few years and buy a used copy when those go down to a couple dollars -- not a problem. As far as I am concerned, a book, for my personal ownership, is a luxury good.
Checking, I see that Amazon has the current #1 NY Times non-fiction bestseller at $9.99 for the eBook, but $16.77 in paper. Since you are making up your plausible fact, I'm going to make up a plausible fact and say that a higher ratio of the eBooks are pirated than the paper books are shoplifted. This is because while price has a little to do with it, chances of getting caught, and social acceptability, is a much bigger factor.
_______________________
* EDITED: Come to think of it, this is an incorrect definition of median, the amount where half the people are above and half below. My link may not be trustworthy, but the general point is true -- most people on the planet can't even afford a dollar or two for a non-essential purchase such as a book.