Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Thornton
I've been thinking about this, and wonder whether the real thing that publishers should focus on is getting people excited about reading, rather than attempting to clamp down on piracy.
...
The real challenge for publishers is to make reading a book seem a better bet for your $10 than a CD, video game, movie etc. A successful clampdown on piracy would do them no good, because their problem is to gain market share vs. other options.
|
They're also competing with free online content. Not just public domain & creative commons ebooks, but blogs, messageboards, fansites, and Youtube.
Hmm, let me think: $10 for a book worth a few hours of reading time, which I hope to enjoy based on reviews & maybe a sample, viewable on my PC or portable device (after some hassle of installing DRM software), but not sharable with friends,
vs
$0 for a few hours of discussion on message boards, which I know I will enjoy because the entire history of the board is visible, and which I can switch to some *other* form of entertainment if I decide I don't like it right now, viewable on PC or some phones with no extra software, sharable with as many friends as I can convince to be interested.
It's really amazing that books *ever* win out. (Someday, someone will make a fully cross-linked ebook out of TVTropes.com, and the ebook industry will collapse in terror.)
But yes. "Piracy" is not the problem ebook publishers/bookstores are facing. The problem is convincing people to read their books, rather than participate in the countless *other* forms of entertainment/education available.