MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Profit or Prevention: Which is more important?

ebookpirate · 10-23-2008, 02:27 PM

You know, I have been reading these threads and over and over again, there is this "war" about allowing users to share their books and the only thing that results is animosity on both sides. As pbooks, sharing is ok but as ebooks, users who share are called thieves. And yes, I understand pbooks are fundamentally different from digital copies such as distribution, but there are parts of the world such as the third world that can't easily get a copy because of the weakness of their currency/economy. And also, I'd like to share my ebooks with close friends/family. True, I'm a socialist but I can allow capitalism in as long as it works FOR the people instead of AGAINST the people.

The publishing industry could easily take care of this as well as make users buy more books. how? they could allow a "sharing" mechanism in their format. People naturally share so the publishers/retailers could allow LEGAL sharing of a limited number of copies as long as the user paid for the sharing options and a printing option if user wanted any of the ebook copies printed. (As everyone says, you can just go buy a used copy at 1 cent or go borrow a library copy and OCR it, so this is nothing more than profiting off of people's laziness for convenience's sake which would profit the publishers/authors/etailers as well as make the users happy.) If user pays $20 for an ecopy, they could share a max of 3 copies or "xy" copies at $10 each extra or whatever price the publisher requires that is below the price the first copy was paid for. This way, NO ONE loses. Those copies paid for sharing with others can not continue to be shared with others (who obviously haven't been covered in the payment system) and I'm sure the software developers could take care of that.

True, publishers/authors could instead just simply force us all to pay $20 per copy but really, I'm not going to pay $40 more for 2 more copies for my friends. And my friends won't pay one cent for ANY copy because they could care less about books, esp when they can just go to the library for it (or have me read or "paraphrase" the important sections to them), although MY friends would be too lazy to get off their duffs even for the library. I'm sure they'd rather just type in the URL to the nearest torrent site.

This doesn't stop the pirate who's going to share it with a million people in the world on a torrent but what it DOES do is make it LEGAL and AUTHORIZED for all average users who just want to share with 3 or so people OR who want to share with a PARTY full room of people but who has LEGALLY paid for the right to do that. The user then is not afraid to share, not afraid to be dragged into court, can share with whomever they want as long as they've paid ""xx" amount for the right to do so.

In the method I detail, the publishers/authors would get more readers and they would at least get partial payment for each shared copy as well as other revenue options like the printing options.

In fact, I foresee the day when this will actually happen when ebooks become mainstream. For publishers, it would be considered another revenue stream as well as expanding the reader base. And for users, it would further their use of ebooks.

Wow!! Something soooooooo SIMPLE like the above hasn't been discussed yet? I guess it's easier and more entertaining for us to "debate" and throw tomatoes at each other (even in a polite way) and call each other names like "thieves" rather than just find a simple solution which benefits everyone.

[Let me off at Sanity Street.]

10-23-2008, 02:27 PM	#89
ebookpirate Member Posts: 10 Karma: 184 Join Date: Sep 2007 Device: laptop	sharing as a profit center You know, I have been reading these threads and over and over again, there is this "war" about allowing users to share their books and the only thing that results is animosity on both sides. As pbooks, sharing is ok but as ebooks, users who share are called thieves. And yes, I understand pbooks are fundamentally different from digital copies such as distribution, but there are parts of the world such as the third world that can't easily get a copy because of the weakness of their currency/economy. And also, I'd like to share my ebooks with close friends/family. True, I'm a socialist but I can allow capitalism in as long as it works FOR the people instead of AGAINST the people. The publishing industry could easily take care of this as well as make users buy more books. how? they could allow a "sharing" mechanism in their format. People naturally share so the publishers/retailers could allow LEGAL sharing of a limited number of copies as long as the user paid for the sharing options and a printing option if user wanted any of the ebook copies printed. (As everyone says, you can just go buy a used copy at 1 cent or go borrow a library copy and OCR it, so this is nothing more than profiting off of people's laziness for convenience's sake which would profit the publishers/authors/etailers as well as make the users happy.) If user pays $20 for an ecopy, they could share a max of 3 copies or "xy" copies at $10 each extra or whatever price the publisher requires that is below the price the first copy was paid for. This way, NO ONE loses. Those copies paid for sharing with others can not continue to be shared with others (who obviously haven't been covered in the payment system) and I'm sure the software developers could take care of that. True, publishers/authors could instead just simply force us all to pay $20 per copy but really, I'm not going to pay $40 more for 2 more copies for my friends. And my friends won't pay one cent for ANY copy because they could care less about books, esp when they can just go to the library for it (or have me read or "paraphrase" the important sections to them), although MY friends would be too lazy to get off their duffs even for the library. I'm sure they'd rather just type in the URL to the nearest torrent site. This doesn't stop the pirate who's going to share it with a million people in the world on a torrent but what it DOES do is make it LEGAL and AUTHORIZED for all average users who just want to share with 3 or so people OR who want to share with a PARTY full room of people but who has LEGALLY paid for the right to do that. The user then is not afraid to share, not afraid to be dragged into court, can share with whomever they want as long as they've paid ""xx" amount for the right to do so. In the method I detail, the publishers/authors would get more readers and they would at least get partial payment for each shared copy as well as other revenue options like the printing options. In fact, I foresee the day when this will actually happen when ebooks become mainstream. For publishers, it would be considered another revenue stream as well as expanding the reader base. And for users, it would further their use of ebooks. Wow!! Something soooooooo SIMPLE like the above hasn't been discussed yet? I guess it's easier and more entertaining for us to "debate" and throw tomatoes at each other (even in a polite way) and call each other names like "thieves" rather than just find a simple solution which benefits everyone. [Let me off at Sanity Street.] Last edited by ebookpirate; 10-23-2008 at 02:38 PM.