MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Is Rapidshare a promoter of e-book piracy?

charleski · 10-06-2009, 08:46 PM

That is such a rubbish NYT article. It's little more than the 'reporter' rewriting a press release, and Randall Stross should hang his head in shame.

Baen has been selling DRM-free eBooks for years now. What's more, Baen publishes SF, and is anyone going to try to tell me that the sort of people who read SF are not the same sort who could easily locate and download pirated material if they wished? The fact is that enough of them don't to allow Baen to keep making a profit and stay in business. They don't because they respect the publisher and they respect the authors. At least part of this respect comes from the fact that Baen in turn respects its readership enough not to cripple its wares with DRM.

Yes, you can search out torrents that will allow you to download thousands of books, which you will probably never read and would not have paid for. This means absolutely nothing to the realities of the book trade.

The book trade needs to face up to reality fast, because running around waving its hands will just mean it lands up in the same mess as the recording companies.

eBooks must be:
1) Cheap. Yes, we aren't stupid, and we realise that a large part of the price of a book is amortisation of the non-material production costs. But when I can buy the hardback of Dan Brown's latest for almost half the cost of the eBook (from the same bookshop, in this case Waterstones), then something is seriously wrong. Stop playing pricing games and peg the eBook price at a standard discount of the price of the cheapest material version to reflect the considerable savings in production and inventory costs.
2) DRM-free and convenient. Buyers should not have to jump through hoops to enjoy the books they have bought. They should not have to worry about what happens if they buy a different reader or move to a different computer. You are NOT SELLING A LICENCE, you are selling a BOOK. Once you've sold it, then that specific book belongs to its new owner and you have nothing more to do with it.

The answers are so, so simple. And at the root of them is the fact that if you want your customers to respect you, then you have to respect your customers first.

10-06-2009, 08:46 PM	#113
charleski Wizard Posts: 1,196 Karma: 1281258 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: PRS-505	That is such a rubbish NYT article. It's little more than the 'reporter' rewriting a press release, and Randall Stross should hang his head in shame. Baen has been selling DRM-free eBooks for years now. What's more, Baen publishes SF, and is anyone going to try to tell me that the sort of people who read SF are not the same sort who could easily locate and download pirated material if they wished? The fact is that enough of them don't to allow Baen to keep making a profit and stay in business. They don't because they respect the publisher and they respect the authors. At least part of this respect comes from the fact that Baen in turn respects its readership enough not to cripple its wares with DRM. Yes, you can search out torrents that will allow you to download thousands of books, which you will probably never read and would not have paid for. This means absolutely nothing to the realities of the book trade. The book trade needs to face up to reality fast, because running around waving its hands will just mean it lands up in the same mess as the recording companies. eBooks must be: 1) Cheap. Yes, we aren't stupid, and we realise that a large part of the price of a book is amortisation of the non-material production costs. But when I can buy the hardback of Dan Brown's latest for almost half the cost of the eBook (from the same bookshop, in this case Waterstones), then something is seriously wrong. Stop playing pricing games and peg the eBook price at a standard discount of the price of the cheapest material version to reflect the considerable savings in production and inventory costs. 2) DRM-free and convenient. Buyers should not have to jump through hoops to enjoy the books they have bought. They should not have to worry about what happens if they buy a different reader or move to a different computer. You are NOT SELLING A LICENCE, you are selling a BOOK. Once you've sold it, then that specific book belongs to its new owner and you have nothing more to do with it. The answers are so, so simple. And at the root of them is the fact that if you want your customers to respect you, then you have to respect your customers first.