[PKFFW]

Originally Posted by anappo

Not your memory, it's your reason. Basically, what you ask of your customer base is a reverse proof of negative. Your belief is that your customers cause you economic harm through piracy. As it is not proven to be false, you choose to believe it is true. Then you require proof to the opposite of your customers.

Firstly, your belief is that piracy does not do any economic harm. As this hasn't actually been proven(regardless of the suspect claims made by many) you choose to believe it is true. You then expect publishers to take you at your word and be happy with anyone and everyone uploading and downloading as many "copies" of the "content" for free as they like.

Secondly, let me be clearer, I never said proof was needed anyway. I never even remotely suggested that. Proof isn't needed by either side.

What I suggested was a change in thinking and the willingness to try to live up to the ideals and philosophies espouosed. I do not blame publishers for being wary about ebooks when the prevailing philosophy seems to be that anyone and everyone should be allowed to download any number of "copies" of the "content" free of charge. If this were not the prevailing attitude, was not gaining acceptance amongst more and more consumers then perhaps publishers would not be so wary about the entire situation.

On the other hand, I believe publishers need to look at other models such as Baen and iTunes and see that, right now, consumers are willing to pay a fair price for a decent product and try to adapt and make that model work for themselves.

Then perhaps some middle ground could be found. As each "side" moves into the future we can see what happens and deal with it as it comes up.

Originally Posted by anappo

This try will likely fail, unless the "people" are interested in military SF (Baen) or can read russian (litres). Possibly there are other niche bookstores, but overall, chances you find something in english that interests you are not good. Unless you are a) US resident and b) accept your books to be crippled with DRM. If you fail at both, darknet and gutenberg are your friends. So, are you trying to recruit me to get my friends and family used to DRM? Or what?

So you've just made the decision that you might not find what your want legitimately so you wont even bother trying?

And you expect publishers to look at your example and think "gee my customers are great, they are happy to pay a fair price for a decent product so I'm going to embrace this new market."

Maybe if you took the few minutes it would take to at least make the attempt, and encouraged those you know to do the same, two things might happen.
1: You might actually find what you want, as unlikely as you think that might be.
2: Publishers, at least the ones who are willing to listen to and perhaps act on what the community is saying, may see that there is a market out there for a quality product at a fair price and they may move to fill that market.

Or you could go on simply deciding beforehand, without any evidence to back your position, that you have no chance at all of finding what you want legitimately and therefore you wont even bother trying. Instead you will continue to download whatever you want for free from the darknet and encourage those you know to do the same. I'm pretty sure two things will happen.
1: More and more people will come to believe in your position, thereby reducing the number of people even willing to try to legitimately source ebooks.
2: Publishers will never come to see that there is a market out there for a decent product at a fair price and will never move to fill that market. Further, they will see "file-sharing" increasing more and more each day and will continue to think it is a waste of time and resources even bothering to fill the market if they did know it exists.

Originally Posted by anappo

Last time I did that I was nicely asked to not post on their forum again. Apparently I came accross as being their enemy. With each passing year, the feeling is increasingly mutual.

Ok, maybe next time you could try politely opening a dialogue, actually taking the time to consider their point view and then think about ways that lead to a win-win situation and seek to implement them.

Of course that's assuming you actually have any interest in changing the status quo. If not, then don't bother.

Cheers,
PKFFW