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Originally Posted by Moejoe
Well I'll answer your last question first, if I may. I no longer seek publication by the old and frankly, unfair, methods. Any control I have over the product will be granted by the public if they adhere to the lenient Creative Commons license I chose to publish myself under. What they then do with it, is up to them. I'd hope that nobody would try to make money off my work, as that's not my intention, and I trust the public to adhere to the Creative Commons licensing which allows them to freely share, redistribute, and even create derivative works from my original. My motivation is not for-profit, but because I have a desire and a want to write. If I had to pay a monthly fee to be allowed to write, I would do so.
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Ok, fair enough. But lets say you did want to make a buck from writing. You were good enough to do so, people wanted to read your work(not suggesting they don't already mind you, just hypothesising), you put in the time and effort to produce it.
Don't you think people should be willing to pay for the priviledge of reading your work if that is what you ask?(and lets be clear, it is a priviledge to read anothers work and not a god given right as seems to be suggested) Or should people have the right to say "nope, I don't care about the time, effort etc that you have put into it, I want to read it but I don't want to pay so I'm going to illegally download it".
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Originally Posted by Moejoe
I don't doubt that we'll see, in time, fan-edited versions of books as we have seen fan edited versions of Star Wars (Lucas didn't bother suing over this by the way). What I'm actually saying is that it's a futile endeavour to try and control your work after publication. Of course you can pursue those trying to make money off your work, I don't think there's any questions about that. But when it comes to file-sharing then you'd be cutting your own throat if you try and restrict the work with such archaic and useless schemes as DRM. That is why the old system is in such dire need of fixing. You can no more restrict a digital copy than you can retrieve a stick of hay out of a massive stack of needles. Ignoring that reality is a sure-fire way to disappointment.
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I'm not arguing that the old way doesn't need to move with the times and change. I'm not arguing that pursuing every file-sharer is a waste of time and money and is likely to drive many people away from reading an authors work. I'm not arguing that all ebooks should be crippled with DRM.
I'm arguing that all that aside, no one has the god given right to access someone elses work, to take advantage of their time and effort, without first agreeing to the terms under which said work, time and effort is offered. If the author says "you can read my book so long as you pay $10 for a copy of the ebook" then you have the god given right to pay the $10 or to choose not to read the book. You don't have the god given right to say "nope, sorry, not gonna play by your rules. Thanks for all the time, effort, work and money you have put into it but I'm off to the torrent site to get my free copy."
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Originally Posted by Moejoe
If the product costs too much, as you say, then the price must come down to attract a market. Or, as a lot of authors are doing, you pay what 'you think' the product is worth, therefore cutting out the middlemen altogether and giving the author maximum profit from his work. Of course some people won't pay, but they wouldn't pay anyway, so nothing is lost, but a reader might be gained. It's a trade off. You either accept what's happening and join the people, or try to force the old methods into the new digital age and lose readers, money and everything else in the process.
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I totally agree that if the market place is charging too much for a product then it is incumbent upon the market place to drop the price until buyers are willing to pay the price asked.
Once again I agree that authors and publishers should come to the party and move with the times. However, using the fact they have chosen not to do so as yet to justify downloading a free copy(as opposed to pirating a copy which apparently is totally different) is just another rationalisation.
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Originally Posted by Moejoe
I suppose I have more trust in people than you, but I think authors are going to come out of this age a lot better off than they've ever been before. I believe we're going to see more people reading, and reading more diversely because their culture is no longer shackled and locked by the old ways.
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Actually I have alot of faith in people. I think the vast majority of people will be quite willing to pay a reasonable fee for an ebook. I am also aware of what the reality is right now. Right now most people who download free copies of ebooks do so because they do not want to pay the asking price. Further, most people who download free copies of ebooks have no intention of afterwards going out and paying the full asking price for that ebook. If they intended to do that, they would simply go and do it in the first place.
Once the market place changes, and it will eventually, I have no doubt that ebooks will be much like music. Many people will choose to download free copies as a way of sampling with the intention of buying a legit copy or at least legit copies of other books by the same author. This, in all likelihood, will lead to an increase in sales to the author. Win-win.
Whatever the reason though, it's still basically putting your own wants and desires ahead of the other persons. You want the book, you don't want to pay(at least to begin with) so you are happy to go obtain a free copy and to heck with the other person. Sure, it's not as bad as murder, assault, straight out theft, having an affair etc etc etc but it's still wrong.
Cheers,
PKFFW