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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Authors do make money off pirated books, if the piracy leads them to new readers who buy the next book. Even if it only leads to new readers who read at the library, it convinces libraries to buy more books. If the pirates write reviews that convince other people to buy the books, the authors make money off the piracy.
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Interesting point. My main negative to this is that... well... music "pirates" aren't out there writing reviews and buying albums... they just MP3 the next album too!
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Authors "don't make money" off used or borrowed books, either, but there's no big campaign to stomp those out--because authors are aware that "read without buying it new" doesn't mean "I got no benefit from that person's reading." (Well, they used to be aware of that. It seems an awful lot of them want to believe otherwise these days.)
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Well, the record industry actually had a brief campaign against used CDs. I believe Garth Brookes was one of those opposing used CD sales. Obviously, it went nowhere... exactly where it should have gone (hell was apparently full that week).
While I can see how there is a benefit to the author from these examples. But
payment isn't one of them! Not directly, anyway. I'm totally for lending books and libraries, and selling used books. But the point Alexie made was about payment.
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They very likely don't make as much as they would have if every download were a sale. But every reader was never a sale (used and borrowed books have always been a substantial part of reading communities)...
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This raises a contradiction in Alexie's statement. He is heralding the destruction of communities by digital downloads. But, as you say, a substantial part of this "community" had to do with loaning books (analogous to digital downloads). So loan books, the community thrives, Alexie is happy!
OTOH, the author isn't paid from the loan. So the author makes no money from their work. Therefore, limiting books to only paid (non-loaned) versions guarantees the author is compensated. And therefore... Alexie is happy!
But in the first "Alexie is happy" scenario, the author isn't compensated. In the second, the community is wrecked. You can't have both. Alexie can't always be happy!
I don't know if it ends up being so cut and dried, but it's still an interesting conundrum.
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Simple answers to that. Limit use of wireless readers, and keep a backup copy in a non-internet location. To avoid corruption/removal of your online data, keep archives offline.
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Yes, these are basically what I was talking about. Solve the
technical problem don't throw out the
technology.
-Pie