Quote:
Originally Posted by Byrdie
I think I have seen this error in logic before. Once upon a time (say 10 or 12 years ago, iirc) the music industry determined that .mp3s could not possibly be used by anyone other than pirates, therefore .mp3 players like the Ipod must also be filled with only pirated music since the legit stuff was so expensive. Completely ignoring the fact there were people filling those players by ripping their already-purchased albums, many of which weren't available in digital format anyway, so that they didn't need to lug around bulky stereo gear and massive record collections. Hence the ".mp3 is an illegal file format!" propaganda the RIAA tried to spread.
And we all know how successful that little campaign was, now don't we?
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Nice analogy.
And now, MP3s quickly are dying (Apple showing the most drastic decline in MP3 sales ever).
Being replaced extensively already by streaming services.
And streaming services like Spotify already stumbling into massive problems due to wholesale content providers such as Amazon.
Which kind of proves my point, that no invest is forever. You can archive your MP3s. You'll find players still for some years. But there will be less and less motivation to actually do so.
From an early beginning, one had been able to rip his CDs and convert to MP3s.
For eBooks, it was way more complicated.
Yes, you can scan and OCR for way over 2 decades already. And there are professional book scanners for a somewhat affordable price. But who actually does so? Just comparing the effort of ripping a CD to scanning and OCRing books.
Only recently did solutions like "get a free download for your analog purchase, even though it was 2 years ago" pop up.
The interesting issue would be, how many readers actually use pirated material.
My guess would be, it's less than with CDs/MP3s. Simply because there are more alternatives, like public libraries for instance. And maybe because a book might deliver more value = 10 to 20 hours reading time vs. a few hours listening time.
Of course, a poll simply could ask:
Do you buy your stuff? Or do you download only free stuff? Or do you illegally download pirated stuff? But this wouldn't be allowed (advocating piracy) and couldn't lead to an authentic picture. Thus my detour over the link to sideloading...