Quote:
Originally Posted by p3aul
With that kind of thinking, I'm wondering if you are all from Somalia! Just like the CD generation! You think nobody should keep you from owning any kind of computer file you want. What kind of distorted thinking is it that "If you can get it for free, you're going to run out and purchase it!" Just like the signature say's in one of Mobilereads' members " If you don't pay authors, soon you won't have any books!" And I doubt very seriously that pirated books are increasing J.K. Rowlings sales. What kind of logic is that? Before most of you were born, probably, J.R.R. Tolkien had a blurb in his books that said" This publisher, only, has the write to print these books in America. Those who have respect for living authors will buy this book and no other" He did this for the obvious reason we are discussing now. But no, I bow to your superior knowledge. The financial departments of all these publishing houses have concluded that copying books in digital format hurts their sales and hurts the authors, but what do they know? Do you think that, knowing it would increase their sales, that they would forbid it?
Don't you think it a bit selfish to want authors to write for the sheer love of writing. I think that's a bit idealistic. Experiments have shown that websites who cater to budding writers, who sell their books for little or no cost, soon fold. The writers who don't write well would never even get published in the big publishing houses. That's just how the system works. If all you want is quanity, not quality, then by all means continue to support free books, but please give recompense to authors who request it.
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I'm having a hard time understanding what your trying to say here.
"If you can get it for free, you're going to run out and purchase it!"
No one is saying this. What we are saying is that people are basically honest. Do you really believe that most people are thieves? That they are quite happy to steal people's work if they can? I don't. Sure some will but that can't be helped, there's no way to stop people committing copyright infringement. So just get over it already. Plenty of poeple will pay for the books if they're a good read. If they aren't any good they won't. They'll buy other books instead. Make it easy and convenient for people to pay and they will.
Also no one is saying that pirated books are increasing J K Rowlings sales, what we are saying is that because you can't buy the Harry Potter books in ebook format she is losing sales. People are downloading illegal copies when most would be quite happy to actually pay for a properly formatted and proofread official copy. Rowling is just an example to show you that drm and a fear of ebooks is just unfounded. DRM doesn't stop pirates and not publishing in ebook format doesn't stop the either.
I also don't see anyone in this thread arguing that authors should just write for the love of writing.
We also aren't arguing that authors should sell at "little or no cost", just at a reasonable cost.