|
What publishers and authors need to understand is that consumers in this increasingly globalized world are less and less willing to put up with what they perceive as arbitrary barriers and borders.
This has not been so much of an issue with books in the past because they were so tightly bound to the physical medium. They weren't available in your country, you could either import them yourself (perfectly legal), mail-order them or whatever. This is still the case: Amazon will happily ship their North-American catalog to readers worldwide. Also, they were only attractive to a minority. For mass market appeal they needed to be translated etc.
With electronic distribution things suddenly changed: "Sorry, not in your neck of the woods. But if you wait another year or three, perhaps we'll throw you a bone then." Well, it's not flying: consumers want their content now, together with the rest of the world. They're willing to pay for it, too, but if paying is not an option they might well turn to other means. This is the internet, after all.
|