Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
I disagree. I think that people will (& do) pay for digital media, even without DRM. Look at Baen Books. Look at iTunes.
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I pay for ebooks, music, videos without DRM too (I will
NOT buy digital media
with DRM). But I don't think there is a practical way of getting upcoming generations to pay for what they increasingly see as just bits of data copied- at no cost- from other bits of data. These generations don't percieve any value in what they can get for free. They don't see it as stealing. I'm not saying it's right or a good thing, but I do think it is inevitible.
Once everyone has an MP3 player, ereader, portable video player, etc. and grandmas and toddlers regularly download digital media...it will be impossible to convince everybody to pay for what they can get for free. It will be a total honour system, which I can't see working. I think eventually the media producers will have to concede that they can no longer sell digital files and will find other ways to profit from digital media.
Already we see a lot of musicians starting to really focus on making their money from anything
but the actual music recordings. That is easier for musicians than authors, of course.