Quote:
Originally Posted by garygibsonsf
Unless I've managed to miss it, nobody really seems to be talking about the actual relationship between free downloading of books and its effect of sales; ie, is there any evidence that downloading of ebooks is negatively affecting the purchase of the paper variety?
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It hasn't been discussed in this thread, but it has been discussed elsewhere in threads related to the need for DRM.
The problem is that it's impossible to measure. Even if you know how many books get illegally downloaded (and how do you find out?), you haven't learned anything useful. What you need to know is how many electronic copies get downloaded, and read
instead of buying a legitimate copy of the book, in paper
or electronic format. If you know a verifiable of determining
that, you've got a whole new lucrative career to get into.
The question has come up before in discussions of the use of DRM on ebooks, and whether DRM prevents piracy and whether it's necessary at all.
My own feeling is no and no. DRM schemes tend to be broken almost immediately, and people with the savvy to download an illegal copy will likely have the savvy to crack protected books
Agreed, most darknet copies are awful. I've seen them, wouldn't try to read them as is, and can't be bothered to do the work required to get them into any form I'd consider readable. I value my time too highly, and it's cheaper viewed that way to just buy the book.
I concur: it's not a threat.
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Dennis