Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
No, we can't.
I suspect that if it even delays by 30 minutes how long it took a book to get onto a pirate site, it prevented a little piracy. Then when there is a takedown notice, it might delay the book's return by a few minutes. And if the pirated book is found a dozen illicit places on the internet without DRM, maybe, with, it's only ten.
This isn't much, but, hey, if it's dinner for a low to midlist author, I'm for it.
Also, while the effect on full-bore piracy is probably too low to measure, the effect on other terms of service violations could be more dramatic. This sounds about right to me:
http://www.idealog.com/blog/drm-may-...protect-sales/ |
If DRM prevented piracy, there would be no piracy of ebooks. Delaying does not equal prevention. When it comes to piracy I fall on the side of authors like Neil Gaiman and Paul Coelho
Neil Gaiman on Piracy
"Everyone who discovered your favorite author by being lent a book, put up your hands, and everyone who discovered their favorite author by walking in a bookstore and buying a book, raise your hands." (He found that maybe 5% of the people discovered their favorite author by going in the store and buying the book. By and large, the majority did not buy the book, they were lent it, THEN went on to continue to support that author.)
"You're not losing sales by having stuff out there. It's people lending books, and you can't look on that as a lost sale. It's not a lost sale. Nobody who would have bought your books is not buying because they can find it for free. What you're actually doing is advertising. You're reaching more people, you're raising awareness."