Price of ebooks and copyrights

[jbcohen]

Have you found that as the price of an ebook goes up there are more ebook pirating and conversely as the price of an ebook goes down the attempts to pirate the book goes down?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Have you found that as the price of an ebook goes up there are more ebook pirating and conversely as the price of an ebook goes down the attempts to pirate the book goes down?

And how exactly would anyone here have any idea if that is true or not?

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Have you found that as the price of an ebook goes up there are more ebook pirating and conversely as the price of an ebook goes down the attempts to pirate the book goes down?

That might hold water only if the reason that pirates exist is because of the price of ebooks. I'm afraid that there would be pirating even if the books were $.05 or less.

[mr ploppy]

Most downloaders choose from a list of stuff they see each day rather than search for anything specific, so I doubt they will even be aware how much it costs. For the people who do search for specific titles price will play a part in that, but everyone will have their own threshold price point where it's easier to just buy it.

There are more important things to think about when you set your price. Too low and people will think it's rubbish, too high and it won't be an impulse purchase so they'll hold off buying it until they want to read it (assuming they don't forget). Then there's sites like Amazon where price plays a big part in how your sales are ranked.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

And how exactly would anyone here have any idea if that is true or not?

This.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Have you found that as the price of an ebook goes up there are more ebook pirating and conversely as the price of an ebook goes down the attempts to pirate the book goes down?

As has already been indicated, I don't think anyone has found anything resembling actual useful numbers. The thing with piracy is that it's a lot easier to see what's available than to see what's actually being downloaded. Depending on the site, you can gauge popularity by the numbers that indicate how many are giving a "torrent assist", but that's still not much of an indication. Sometimes people don't reseed (which is happening more often now that the heat is turned up - people are learning how to turn off that option) and others only reseed to support certain items or uploaders.

Even if a site has download stats listed, that's still only one site out of many, and sites ebb and flow in usage (especially if it's a well-known site that's under scrutiny from law enforcement).

And that's just for torrent sites - I'd wager that for ebooks, newsgroups get more traffic, and as those are mostly by paid subscription, you can't just drop by and see if they even list file stats.

It would be nice if we could point to the numbers and say with any certainty that intelligent pricing reduces piracy, but the only people that have those numbers probably won't be volunteering that info any time soon.

[Xanthe]

I can only say that if I look at the price of an ebook and it is the same as a print book, I am more likely to buy the print book. I just can't see paying the same price for a digital download; I view the print book as having more "value" to me.

I don't think price really is the determining factor because there are too many reasons why people upload books, ranging from making sure that OOP books become available again to thinking that all books should be freely available to everyone - with all the positions in between.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Have you found that as the price of an ebook goes up there are more ebook pirating and conversely as the price of an ebook goes down the attempts to pirate the book goes down?

Why not give us your data and let us decide for ourselves?

[Liz Groot]

I am induced to piracy by the following exasperating facts:
- I wanted to buy an e-book at Amazon, and found one for €4,50 on Amazon.de; unfortunately, I live in Germany's neighbouring country, the Netherlands, so I could not order from the German section of Amazon, and I am forced to buy the very same book for €9 at Amazon.com. I cannot imagine what difference in quality can earn a double price for an ebook.
- I bought the book I wanted at Kobo books, for €5,50, but it turned out that 'ereader' on the Kobo sites only means 'Kobo ereader'; there was a safety called "DRM" on the ebook, so I could not convert the epub/pdf by Calibre to my Kindle. I sent an email and Kobo was very sorry I did not succeed in transferring the book to my ereader, but I had to look on their website (where it is nowhere made clear that 'ereader' means only their own type and is not generally used) and I could not get a refund. I was really angry, for I already own the book in paper and I am not in need of a desktop version on my home computer. I wanted an e-version, to read it on holiday.
- Suggestion: why not offer an e-version with any book you buy on paper? The author earns, the bookshop earns, and I would be a happy customer.

[nursedude]

Originally Posted by Liz Groot

- Suggestion: why not offer an e-version with any book you buy on paper? The author earns, the bookshop earns, and I would be a happy customer.

That's a great idea. Studios are already doing this with some movies being released. (Buy the Blu-Ray and get a digital copy for use on a portable device/computer). For me the only drawback to that idea is I don't want/need two copies of the same book.

Originally Posted by Liz Groot

- I bought the book I wanted at Kobo books, for €5,50, but it turned out that 'ereader' on the Kobo sites only means 'Kobo ereader'; there was a safety called "DRM" on the ebook, so I could not convert the epub/pdf by Calibre to my Kindle. I sent an email and Kobo was very sorry I did not succeed in transferring the book to my ereader, but I had to look on their website (where it is nowhere made clear that 'ereader' means only their own type and is not generally used) and I could not get a refund. I was really angry, for I already own the book in paper and I am not in need of a desktop version on my home computer. I wanted an e-version, to read it on holiday.

Actually, the problem is that you didn't do your research prior to buying the book and/or Kindle. Kobo sells ebooks for any ereader that supports ePub. Kindle is the odd reader out because they want to lock in customers with a proprietary DRM scheme. Not doing your research seems like a very poor excuse for piracy.

[taming]

Originally Posted by Liz Groot

- I bought the book I wanted at Kobo books, for €5,50, but it turned out that 'ereader' on the Kobo sites only means 'Kobo ereader'; there was a safety called "DRM" on the ebook, so I could not convert the epub/pdf by Calibre to my Kindle.

It is very rare indeed for a book sold by Kobo (unless it is a fixed format book for the Vox reader) NOT to have an ePUB option to download into Adobe's ADE program and then transfer to readers that support that format. They generally have DRM, but it is the kind of DRM that people seem to routinely remove (google Apprentice Alf) and then change the format to one that can be used on the Kindle using a program like Caibre.

When you buy a book from Kobo, the page that the sale completion generates has a blue button to download the ePUB. The same button is present on the library listings for books bought on the Kobo website.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Actually, the problem is that you didn't do your research prior to buying the book and/or Kindle. Kobo sells ebooks for any ereader that supports ePub. Kindle is the odd reader out because they want to lock in customers with a proprietary DRM scheme. Not doing your research seems like a very poor excuse for piracy.

You are right, of course. But I do think this is one of the things that are wrong with DRM. Now you have to do research (about technical matters) before buying a book in order not to get burned. And, to most people this will come as a complete surprise the first time they decide to buy an ebook. An extremely "customer-unfriendly" system.

[Soldim]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Actually, the problem is that you didn't do your research prior to buying the book and/or Kindle. Kobo sells ebooks for any ereader that supports ePub. Kindle is the odd reader out because they want to lock in customers with a proprietary DRM scheme. Not doing your research seems like a very poor excuse for piracy.

I love judgmental people, especially if they base their judgment on facts known to a rather small part of the general population.

For a large part of the population, ebook and ereader formats and compatibility is a mess. Adding different DRM flavors to the mix has definitely not helped transparency. I am lazy, want instant gratification and don't intend to make a detailed study of which format is supported by which device and which DRM can schemes are compatible. As long as publishers/shops are not willing to understand the fact that they should enable easy format conversion and get rid of DRM I perfectly understand those people going to places where ebooks are made available in a convertable, non-DRMed format.

Especially considering those downloads are not illegal in many jurisdictions (including where I live), publishers and re-sellers will have to get their act together if they want to remain competitive.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Actually, the problem is that you didn't do your research prior to buying the book and/or Kindle.

To someone who doesn't know otherwise, I suspect it would seem reasonable to expect that if they buy an e-reader, they'll be able to buy books wherever they want. After all, if you buy a music player, you'll be able to play MP3s on it, regardless of where you bought them.

It's true that the poster didn't do research prior to buying a Kindle, but then, they probably didn't realise that any research was required. They probably assumed that digital books would be like digital audio, and that you'd be able to buy where you liked and read/play on the device of your choosing. I don't think that's an unreasonable assumption.