Quote:
Originally Posted by djgreedo
........A shift in thinking is required one way or another. People will pirate regardless.
If relatively few people pirate, then the current iTunes models will work.
If piracy becomes even more widespread, then the current model becomes unworkable. Will publishers increase prices and blame the pirates?
I think that is the only major point we disagree on. I think people will steal increasingly as more people use digital devices and the ease of stealing files becomes accessible to the masses, and the only way I can imagine solving this problem is to give everything away and make money through other channels - advertising, subscription (which really would work very much like supply-demand), product placement, etc.
And while it would be great if the iTunes model worked, I still think someone will work out how to make more money by using one or more of the methods I've hinted at.
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I decided to only respond to this part as I think everything we both really wish to say has been said already.
I agree that piracy will become more prevalant. I agree authors and publishers need to realise this and try to find new and innovative ways to profit from the digital age or they will go by the way side.
I think the idea of making money in "other ways" is one bound to failure though. Lets look at the main ideas put forward......
Advertising:
Firstly, who wants to read a book with an ad on every other page. Secondly, as is seen with TV already people are downloading more and more from the darknet partly in order to get around this very issue. As more and more people do this advertisers will pay less and less until the advertising dollar completely dries up. The same goes for pirated ebooks. Uploaders will simply get rid of the adds before uploading and people will seek to acquire them through the darknet because they don't like adds. In short, advertising wont work.
Value added items like T-shirts or cards etc:
Lets get real, how many people really want a t-shirt or card of their favourit book? I'd say about 0.00001% of the people who read the book. Clearly not enough to make it worthwhile to put all the effort into creating a book. If people want a t-shirt they will go buy a t-shirt, they wont go read a book and think about buying a t-shirt because of it.
Donation system:
We agree that piracy is only going to become more prevalent in the future so why would anyone honestly think that a donation system based on the honour system will work? Frankly if the idea is that the content is free and people should make a donation if they feel like it, most will simply focus on the "free" part.
Subscription method:
It only takes one copy out there and limitless copies can be made. So it really only takes 1 subscriber. Again, if the idea is all content is free, why would anyone bother paying the subscription?
Writer releases next part only when sufficient funds have arrived:
At least the author gets paid but I can't see the public agreeing to this in the long term. It gives far to much "power" to the author.
In short, I keep coming back to the idea that the only viable method is for the consumers to admit there is value in creative work just as there is value in whatever job they do for a living. If they see no value in creative work they will never be convinced to pay anything for it or for any other "value added crapola" that comes with it.
Will authors make as much in the future? Almost absolutely not. But that isn't really my point.
Cheers,
PKFFW