Quote:
Originally Posted by PKFFW
Digital media will, over time and as ebook readers become more common, drop in price until it reaches a point which consumers think is fair to pay. At that point consumers will most likely simply buy the digital media. Those who want the physical copy of the book will pay for that too. Buying one will not confer any rights or entitlements to the other, either for free or at a discount. Along the way there may be marketing ploys and other isolated instances of digital copies being given away with the purchase of the physical book.
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I think as the devices get better and cheaper, more people will go digital and the whole idea of printing thousands of copies in advance will fall by the wayside for most of the things that are currently in print media today. Printing will probably still continue as a craft but not as a mass market production. If you want a paper copy, there's already POD. If the same format shifting rights apply (at least here in the US) it seems likely that you would be able to print your file. At the very least I think it would be a bad plan for the publishers not to include a right to printing. Even iTunes in its DRM days allowed you to burn a limited number of copies. After all, if you get too restrictive many people will choose to simply download the content without paying.
So it seems likely to me this concern about getting a free or highly discounted digital copy when purchasing print will be fairly short lived in the scheme of things. Not much consolation for those of us going through the transition where we have shelves and shelves of paper books. I think that's what we get for living in interesting times.