Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Don't forget Sturgeon's Law, which says that "90% of everything is crap". The problem with information found on the web is that it's difficult to assess its accuracy. With a science book from a reputable publisher, you know that the contents of the book will have been peer-reviewed, and will be trustworthy.
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Actually Harry a more correct statement would be "
the contents of the book should have been peer-reviewed, and should be trustworthy". Sometimes peer review perpetuates universally held beliefs that are in error, e.g. Galileo's "
peer" review about the center of the solar system is a classical and well known case. Sometimes the review by established authority is not really peer review.
Another way to look at the DRM situation is, "How much does the DRMing cost - to both the seller and the buyer?" If that cost to the buyer would "statistically" reduce the cost (to the buyer) of the ebook to the point where some percentage of pirates would buy instead of pirating then perhaps more profit would accrue to the seller. Also if the seller is absorbing some of the DRM cost, his profit per sell will increase or the price could be lowered even further resulting (hopefully) in more sells, equating to more profit.