Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
I hope you didn't think I was suggesting that anyone should buy King or Brown or even read free versions of them.
However, I am surprised that you would download a copy from the darknet. I thought you were an author yourself and one who wants reasonable copyright protection for your own work. Am I wrong?
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You couldn't be more wrong. I am an author, yes, but my ideas on copyright have changed radically over the last year. Copyright is dead, the Mouse put a bullet through its skull. And I download plenty of stuff from the darknet, I love piracy, I'm pro-piracy. Pirates get it right every time:
Want that rare TV show called Vengeance Unlimited? You're not getting it from the commercial companies, no matter how many petitions you sign for a DVD release. Guess whose going to get you that show?
Pirates.
You just paid for the latest Stephen King dreck on a whim, but you want to read it on your reader? Tough luck, buster, you'll have to wait three months for it, unless....
You guessed it, the pirates have you covered.
Spent £600 on a HD-DVD player and discs only to have them discontinued six months later? Well you're not getting any refund for that, but hey, why not replace all those films with lovely h264 1080p DTS-audio versions? Guess whose doing that and under 10gb for each film?
The pirates.
Or how about that music collection you have in vinyl, tape and CD? What are you going to do, pay ridiculous amounts of money to Jobs and Itunes? Or maybe you can get all those albums again in lossless FLAC, but where, who would go to the trouble of offering that format?
The pirates!
And what about that game you bought, you know, the latest one that cost you £50 and when you get it home you realise you can't install it without asking somebody over the telephone for an authorisation key? And then when you have the key you can't install it on more than one computer at a time. Damn, if there was only some way to get around that...if there was only someone out there who realised that convenience wins every time. Oh wait, you're saying there's somebody out there who takes off that stupid activation, who'll give you the same product, for free, and you can install it on as many computers as you like? Now who would do a thing like that?
Pirates to the rescue!
Okay, so I'm exaggerating, but not by much. I can afford to buy my stuff, I can afford to waste £10 on Stephen King and then download a quick, dirty copy of the book and not feel too bad about it. But I'm 35, I'm old in Internet years. If anybody actually thinks the majority of teens and above even hesitate to download, then they need a wakeup call. The publishers need a wakeup call.
Offer the product in a timely, low-cost and unencumbered manner and you'll keep your customers (at least you'll keep the ones willing to pay). Don't and lose your business. That is the new reality. Ignore it at your peril.