Proposal for undercutting Pirates

[DuckieTigger]

There have been a lot of threads about how piracy is bad lately. I am proposing a new business idea to make pirating legal in certain ways. Granted, it will not work for everybody, and it may not work for nobody.

Pirating of ebooks since they are ebooks cannot be prevented. You can only throw stones in the way and make it harder. The harder you try though, the harder and faster will the pirates catch up, unless: [list]write a book[list]self-publish book as ebook, e.g. in Amazon[list]create new-ebook version including a special Disclaimer (inside and part of the book)[list]upload new-ebook into the darknet (is that what it is called nowadays?)
Now that Disclaimer should say something like:

This is a free book. If you enjoyed the book please do one or more of the following:

- send this book to all your friends that may be interested in reading it as well (e.g. through email)
- donate money directly to me, the author, to sumsuchandthis paypal in the amount that you think is the fair price you are willing to spend for having read and enjoyed this piece of literature. This will compensate and motivate me to write further books.

If you don't feel that this book is worth reading, then please do us both a favor and hit the delete button.

Now this might not be a completely new idea, but why does nobody do it then already? It takes the illegal part out of pirating, increases your readers. Without readers you cannot make money. Many of the readers might even think it is a great concept of: pay only if you know you liked it. Not everybody is going to say: "oh hell, why pay, I already read it now".

Would be interesting to see how well financially a book does that gets published only by uploading it to torrent-sites like that.

Thoughts/Comments please.

P.S.: Yes I am aware that a full-time writer that depends on writing as income might not want to do that if he/she has not backup income.

[RainingLemur]

I could see something like that bringing some money to a writer in the short-term. But, I don't think that it would be the cure-all, or even a cure-some for the problem that is piracy.

I think it could be somewhat of a step in the right direction, but I think there'd need to be a major tooling of this model to be enticing to writers. I wouldn't necessarily want to think "I just spent all this time writing my story, and now I'm just going to give it away and hope that someone donates money to me because they liked it."

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

I wouldn't necessarily want to think "I just spent all this time writing my story, and now I'm just going to give it away and hope that someone donates money to me because they liked it."

That is why I mentioned that it might not work for full-time writers that have writing as their sole income. Is there no recreational writers that like to be read? How does that work for PD-writers? Do they not want any money if someone thinks they should pay for it beeing worth it?

[sbroome]

Wouldn't it just be shorter to suggest asking for donations? That's essentially what you're saying, and it's been done for years with free content.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by sbroome

Wouldn't it just be shorter to suggest asking for donations? That's essentially what you're saying, and it's been done for years with free content.

Well, yes. And, no.

Asking for donations would work, but then it somehow had to get into somebodies hands. Distributing it around in areas that has other pirated copies of other books flying around would ensure that it will reach those that are looking for a way to download your book. If it is getting popular enough it eventually will get pirated no matter what. But then by the time it becomes popular enough that there is need to pirate it (for whatever reason), then it is already there - in a good enough quality (since it is basically the original) but with the option to leave donations. There is a difference between free, and pay after you know what you bought. The ones that download it and never intended to pay in the first place, will not pay when they see that they could and/or should. And there is nothing that would make them change their mind.

Some out there might be looking for a new author that they are willing to spend money on, if they only knew first hand that it was to their liking. Almost like - give away first book in series and have you pay for rest. Except that the "pay for rest" part is not going to work if you cannot get it legally for free to begin with to see if you like it.

There is also the mystery part to it: Hey look, it got "pirated", gotta be worth at least a look into it if it shows up here with all the other pirate (actually pirated) books

[sbroome]

The ones that download it and never intended to pay in the first place, will not pay when they see that they could and/or should. And there is nothing that would make them change their mind.

Who cares about serving those people? If they're too cheap to place any value on work their consumption is not a priority. Do I get to start deciding after I eat at restaurants whether or not I want to pay for the meal based on how good it tasted?

[Redcard]

That's donationware. In the history of software, it doesn't work.

What you should do is just accept that some people are going to steal your work. Instead of wasting time on people who will steal, and not pay, and thus aren't really your customer.. just put out good work. Charge up front (or provide a sample and charge for the whole) , and treat your customers like customers.

If people aren't treated like customers, and instead, are treated like criminals.. they will act like criminals.

I mean , look at it this way. I have a copy of a book I purchased on BN.. I'm reading it on my Kindle through some neat little tricks. I paid for this product on BN. Now, if you make it so the next product I buy on BN requires me to do something like type in some six digit code from some authenticator every time I read it.. I'm going to steal the product instead of buy it. I might do both. But I'll be reading the stolen version.

At the same time as I'm downloading the stolen version, pirates who NEVER WERE INTERESTED IN BEING CUSTOMERS, are doing the same. They're not stopped by DRM. The only one who is stopped by DRM are legitimate customers that gave you money.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by sbroome

Who cares about serving those people? If they're too cheap to place any value on work their consumption is not a priority. Do I get to start deciding after I eat at restaurants whether or not I want to pay for the meal based on how good it tasted?

Not everybody that doesn't pay is too cheap. But you are absolutely right, why should you let somebody read a book for cheaper than you expect to get paid. Funny you mention the restaurant - if you look at Italy for instance, waiters do not get paid at all - all they get is tips, yes sometimes part of your bill has already tips included, but that is pretty shabby if you only pay what the bill says knowing the waiters don't get properly paid. If you liked the food, it is good manners to leave a tip when the service and food was good.

As a writer - earn your money by earning it from your readers. Free might not always work - but say - sell book for $0.50 on your website, to cover cost for the website. And then you simply ask for a tip if the food and service ( words and paragraphs) was good.

[sbroome]

Originally Posted by Redcard

That's donationware. In the history of software, it doesn't work.

What you should do is just accept that some people are going to steal your work. Instead of wasting time on people who will steal, and not pay, and thus aren't really your customer.. just put out good work. Charge up front (or provide a sample and charge for the whole) , and treat your customers like customers.

If people aren't treated like customers, and instead, are treated like criminals.. they will act like criminals.

I mean , look at it this way. I have a copy of a book I purchased on BN.. I'm reading it on my Kindle through some neat little tricks. I paid for this product on BN. Now, if you make it so the next product I buy on BN requires me to do something like type in some six digit code from some authenticator every time I read it.. I'm going to steal the product instead of buy it. I might do both. But I'll be reading the stolen version.

At the same time as I'm downloading the stolen version, pirates who NEVER WERE INTERESTED IN BEING CUSTOMERS, are doing the same. They're not stopped by DRM. The only one who is stopped by DRM are legitimate customers that gave you money.

This I completely agree with. For example I bought a software suite(Nero), and then switched to Windows 7 less than 6 months later. They announced that my software would not work with Windows 7 and they wouldn't give me a reduced rate for the latest version that WOULD work with it. It's almost like they want me to get the pirated version.

[sbroome]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Not everybody that doesn't pay is too cheap. But you are absolutely right, why should you let somebody read a book for cheaper than you expect to get paid. Funny you mention the restaurant - if you look at Italy for instance, waiters do not get paid at all - all they get is tips, yes sometimes part of your bill has already tips included, but that is pretty shabby if you only pay what the bill says knowing the waiters don't get properly paid. If you liked the food, it is good manners to leave a tip when the service and food was good.

As a writer - earn your money by earning it from your readers. Free might not always work - but say - sell book for $0.50 on your website, to cover cost for the website. And then you simply ask for a tip if the food and service ( words and paragraphs) was good.

I think a lot of you folks (and this is not your fault) that don't create are not clear on the number of unpaid man hours that go into creating the stuff you're talking about. Website costs and the like are not the only issues to address. You'd be shocked at how little we actually make per hour. How much more do you want?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Redcard

At the same time as I'm downloading the stolen version, pirates who NEVER WERE INTERESTED IN BEING CUSTOMERS, are doing the same. They're not stopped by DRM. The only one who is stopped by DRM are legitimate customers that gave you money.

Some of those pirates simply are unwilling to become customers, because they are labeled as thieves because you as writer choose to sell only with DRM or only on Kindle or only on B&N.

Harry Potter ebooks. Why are they not selling them? Do not tell me they do not know that there is Harry Potter ebooks out there. They either don't care, because they made enough money with the pbooks and movie rights, or they are so dumb as to think that releasing a legally available Harry Potter ebook would encourage piracy even more. Even more than already the case? How so?

[Giggleton]

Wages? How much are those who make the devices we use to read our ebooks paid per hour? Or is the text contained between the bits all that matters?

A combination of referrer tracking with simplified donation buttons is most likely the future for digital content.

[Redcard]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Some of those pirates simply are unwilling to become customers, because they are labeled as thieves because you as writer choose to sell only with DRM or only on Kindle or only on B&N.

Harry Potter ebooks. Why are they not selling them? Do not tell me they do not know that there is Harry Potter ebooks out there. They either don't care, because they made enough money with the pbooks and movie rights, or they are so dumb as to think that releasing a legally available Harry Potter ebook would encourage piracy even more. Even more than already the case? How so?

The funny thing is, legitimate customers such as myself WOULD pay for future Harry Potter books as ebooks. And non-legitimate non-customers, like thieves, are going to MAKE them or scan them or download them. There will be Potter books out there. The "bad guys" will have them, and will pay nothing for them, and the "good guys", the ones who WOULD pay money for them.. won't.

It's just bizarre.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

... If you liked the food, it is good manners to leave a tip when the service and food was good.

...

I don't think it is standard practice for any of the tips to go to the food preparers (here in the US)? Although bartenders get a cut of the tips (for drink orders), I think.

Sorry for sidetracking the thread.

[Redcard]

Also, interestingly enough, in some cultures tipping is banned or not welcome. Especially Asian cultures. The gratuity is often built into the bill or cost of food.