Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
OK, how do you feel about downloading a commercial eBook rather than a "home made" scan?
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Well, let me pose these 2 questions:
1. Am I justified in downloading a "commercial" e-book for free, if I previously owned that e-book in a version for my RocketBook that was broken? Mind you, I paid good money for the original DRMd ebook, and have no recourse with the publisher as they are out of business.
2. If I already own the paper book, is the end result- having an electronic version to read- any different whether I create the version myself or download it from the net?
You might consider this- book publishing is a much smaller market than music or movie publishing. The draconian efforts of music and movie makers to eliminate online piracy has failed miserably; what makes you think DRM or other policies that hurt the consumer will work with books?
Even Apple's online music store has announced they will be dropping DRM because customers don't want it. The ITUNES store has discovered that alot of people will buy a song for $1, a TV show for $2, and movies for $10 or less. When e-book sellers like the Connect store wake up and start pricing realistically, people will start buying from them. DRM ebooks, and watch your customer base dry up.
From the costs associated with the production of a paper book, deduct the following:
costs of printing and packaging. replace with (extremely low) cost of conversion from on electroni format to another.
costs of warehousing, transportation, and storefront (replace with far lower costs of web-based sales.
costs of book returns (from retailer to publisher) for unsold books- shipping, storage, etc.
Perhaps when ebook sellers start adjusting selling prices accordingly, their sales will improve.