Quote:
Originally Posted by EatingPie
I'm not necessarily defending DRM here, but I do want to answer your question.
A used book is a single entity. There's that used book... or those used books. Each one was bought and paid for new at one time, gaining the publisher and author their due profits.
OTOH, you can copy an ebook. And copy the copy of the copy of the copy... without any degradation. And so on and so forth. With anything pirated on the Internet, copies can go for infinity, without the e-books ever running out. And only one of those perpetually infinite copies started out as something that was paid for, only one of those perpetually infinite copies led to compensating the publisher/author. This is opposed to a used book store where every copy had some initial compensation going to the author/publisher.
-Pie
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Ummm... And except where some schlub actually *takes the time* to copy a dead-tree version into e-version, so *many* pirated ebooks come from *already-purchased-by-someone-else* ebook sources - which means that the same scenario is true for ebooks.
And given how some authors, such as J.K. Rowling, are so vehemently opposed to *any* ebook version, it only makes sense to pirate versions.
Derek
P.S. Given how many authors have found that ebook versions - even pirated copies - boost overall sales, one can, and BAEN does, that any e-copy out there is worth it in terms of generating sales. Of course a publisher has to actually PUT the ebook versions out there.
I note that so many of the BAEN books are available in CD-ROM format - for free - and have hooked countless readers into buying more books (and ebooks) from them.