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Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
Hmm.
If not available as a legal eBook, how is it available as an illegal eBook? I guess it may be available as an uncorrected scan, but most people wouldn't read that.
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People do scan books and share them and have for some time. I haven't come across any recently but in the old Palm Days it was quite common for books to circulate in text format and be corrected by multiple people, even showing a version number. I recall reading somewhere that Harry Potter fans had actually typed out one or more of the Books, presumably before they were officially available as ebooks. Given the internet and social media groups large tasks can easily be divided between multiple people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
As for geo-restrictions, I have on rare occasion been hit with this on books with small US sales potential. I can't see that as a significant factor in piracy.
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It certainly is in countries other than the US.
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Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
I can see people, in nations lacking freedom to read, downloading popular books sometimes banned, such as Jung Chang's biography of Mao. But I consider that a case of evaded censorship rather than piracy.
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It is still piracy, no matter how good the cause. I won't ask you if you condone such piracy, because you could only answer no without breaching the forum rules.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
I think that the first book pirated might have a relationship to price. But once someone gets used to piracy, they would stick with it regardless of price.
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I once had a fascinating discussion with a stranger in an airport lounge who basically bought Indie ebooks at cheaper prices, but routinely pirated Big 5 ebooks, even the cheaper ones. I make no secret of my distaste for the price fixing conspirators and their decades of price gouging, but she was truly angry and out for revenge. That is one extreme. But I doubt piracy is addictive. I suspect that there are many people who obtain a pirate copy of an ebook not available to them without becoming wholesale pirates.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
And the price relationship exists for anything comparable. If taxes were lower, people would be less likely to become habitual tax cheats. This tells us nothing about what the tax rate (or book price) should be.
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I think the point you are missing here is peoples perception of overall value, including convenience. In music, for instance, ITunes has massively reduced piracy by making it affordable, convenient and trivially easy to purchase. Likewise but to a lesser extent with Amazon and even Kobo, at least for ebooks where prices are not controlled by greedy publishers with an agenda to preserve print as much and as long as possible.
As I have said before on these forums, what is amazing is that there is a thriving book business when it is so trivial to obtain a pirate copy for free. People choose freely to pay, but will consider other options where they perceive they are being gouged, or that they are not getting sufficient value for their hard-earned money. This should be taken into account in any price setting exercise and can be ignored only at great peril.