Cutting Prices is the only way to stop piracy

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Yes. Maximum fine of $10,000. Maximum term of imprisonment 3 years (but you'd probably get probation). Possible felony record, though.

The only actual prosecutions I personally know of involved people selling copied DVDs and counterfeit sportswear on the street.

That would be because commercial counterfeiting and piracy is a criminal offence, even in countries where not-for-profit filesharing is legal.

http://www.bpi.co.uk/our-work/protec...ic-piracy.aspx

[Enkidu of Abydos]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

people want the free but not the fee

you know, with this mindset, we should all just set up communities and provide free services and goods for everyone

I'm all for free sex for anyone !

[Enkidu of Abydos]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Sorry, $8 is too much for me.

Does that mean I can ethically pirate it?

Nope, you can ethically pirate it whatever the price.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Enkidu of Abydos

I'm all for free sex for anyone !

I assume you have no kids then?

[MerLock]

Originally Posted by kennyc

For convenience of course...sheesh!!

For the convenience of being taken out of the story by distracting/annoying errors? I'd pay double for that experience.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Enkidu of Abydos

Nope, you can ethically pirate it whatever the price.

Why do you consider it to be "ethical"?

[kennyc]

Ohhh! This is gonna be fun.

My money's on the Dalek.

[NVash]

I seriously doubt piracy will ever end but cutting prices will definitely cut piracy down.

[kennyc]

I couple of weeks back I happened to see Janis Ian on Woodsongs and she mentioned her autobiography "Society's Child" which I received in the mail today. In skimming it I ran across mention of her being one of the first outspoken artists to go against the grain and stand up for music downloads and sharing and using it as a means of marketing and increasing sales. You can read the article here:

http://www.janisian.com/reading/internet.php



an excerpt:

...I've found that to be true myself; every time we make a few songs available for free download on my website, sales of all the CDs go up. A lot.

And I don't know about you, but as an artist with an in-print record catalogue that dates back to 1965, I'd be thrilled to see sales on my old catalogue rise!


Even a mention of Baen Books and SFWA in the piece.

[Lemurion]

I think many eBooks are overpriced - some ridiculously so - and I really think lower prices would be better for everyone in the long run.

I don't expect free, I know exactly how much work goes into writing a novel, and anyone willing to put that amount of effort into someone else's entertainment deserves to be paid for it. I think $5-6 for the eBooks of current paperbacks and $3-5 for backlist is probably reasonable. I won't often pay $10 for a single eBook, but I'm not going to quibble about $10-15 for the eBook of a current hardcover.

It's not what I want to pay, but it doesn't peg my ripoff detector either.

It's simple enough, the closer prices come to the perceived value of the product, the more eBooks they're going to sell.

The thing is, these sales aren't going to be coming so much from pirates, but from people who aren't buying now because prices are too high, but aren't willing to pirate either. They are the underserved market that the industry can make money from, not the pirates.

Some casual or circumstantial pirates may turn from the dark side when things become readily available at a reasonable price, but others won't, and that's not a problem because they don't matter. They're the ones who would either pirate or do without, so they're never going to be a sale.

Lower prices to meet the perceived value and sales will go up regardless of whether piracy goes down - it's not a zero-sum game.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

The Music Industry is a prime example of the effects of copyright enforcement. Nothing. After all the convictions, threats, etc., folks are still putting music up on the darknet.

Lowering prices will reduce pirating, but will not eliminate it.

The RIAA knows how not to do business. They have their heads so far up their asses, they cannot see daylight.

The RIAA managed to get Napster 1.0 shut down when really what Napster did was increase sales of CDs about 6%. Yes, that's really good for business.

The RIAA raised priced of CDs. CDs used to be about $12.99 normal price and about $9.99 on sale for newly released CDs. People bought CDs under this price structure. Then the RIAA goes and raises prices. Sales drop. Yes, that's really good for business.

So basically, we have the RIAA to blame for the increase in music piracy.

[Lemurion]

It all comes back to perceived value: If you charge more than people think your product's worth they stop buying.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by FF2

Well, you do have a point. The fact that a book is geo-restricted in not exactly equal to attempting to illegally import cocaine or rhino horn or even child pornography. You are blocking someone from attempting to purchase an otherwise legal object. There is no way for a person to acquire it legally but they could acquire the pbook - can you get much crazier than that. Transferring electrons is improper but actual book is not. Folks wonder about the sanity of certain laws and this is definitely one of them. Since they cannot possibly acquire a legal product in a legal fashion could drive some to go to the dark side.

What geo-restriction has done is cause people to lose access to legally purchased eBooks. They go back to the site where they purchased the eBooks and find they cannot download them any longer. They copies they have may be now useless as they need to redownload to update the DRM.

So what do they do? They turn to the net to find them and along the way, find other goodies they can get for free. So they do because they are pissed off at the publishers for imposing these restrictions that take away their legally purchased content. So in retaliation, they take from the publishers. Who gets hit in the crossfire? The authors. But the authors don't seem to care. If they did, the authors would be all over the publishers to get rid of geo-restrictions and agency pricing.

Then the is the MPAA that sells these combo pack DVDs. They include an electronic copy of the movie that can be watched on your computer or tablet. But the problem is that the DRM expires and if you buy these combo packs after the expiration date, you can't use the digital copy. But you still pay for it. So the customers go to the net to find it. They also find other movies there too for free and get them as well.

So really, these whining b*st*rds really only have themselves to blame. They scream foul when it is them that caused this mess in the first place.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What geo-restriction has done is cause people to lose access to legally purchased eBooks. They go back to the site where they purchased the eBooks and find they cannot download them any longer. They copies they have may be now useless as they need to redownload to update the DRM.

So what do they do? They turn to the net to find them and along the way, find other goodies they can get for free. So they do because they are pissed off at the publishers for imposing these restrictions that take away their legally purchased content. So in retaliation, they take from the publishers. Who gets hit in the crossfire? The authors. But the authors don't seem to care. If they did, the authors would be all over the publishers to get rid of geo-restrictions and agency pricing.

Then the is the MPAA that sells these combo pack DVDs. They include an electronic copy of the movie that can be watched on your computer or tablet. But the problem is that the DRM expires and if you buy these combo packs after the expiration date, you can't use the digital copy. But you still pay for it. So the customers go to the net to find it. They also find other movies there too for free and get them as well.

So really, these whining b*st*rds really only have themselves to blame. They scream foul when it is them that caused this mess in the first place.

I ran into the MPAA thing recently: I bought a Watchmen DVD pack only to discover the digital copy authorization had expired a month before. It was seriously irritating, and I ended up ripping a copy.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

It all comes back to perceived value: If you charge more than people think your product's worth they stop buying.

I think it's not quite as simple as that. Often people overpay because they have little choice.

I remember when I had to pay $15 for a whole CD just to get a couple if songs I really wanted. The business model was great for the industry until mp3 and the Internet came along to disrupt it.

Now I'm paying too much for cable TV. Cable TV is like the weather -- everybody complains about it, but nobody does anything about it. I'd love to cut the cord, but dang it, I need to watch the Lakers so Netflix and google TV and what-not ain't gonna cut it. There's a business just begging for something to disrupt it.

By comparison, I have no great beef against the publishing industry. Yes many (e)books are priced too high, but I have alternatives. There are plenty of free books, and then there's the library (hello, Amazon? Get with it). I just need to exercise a bit of self control. Gotta remember the hot books I really want to read now will still be just as good a couple years from now.