talkmagic.co.uk

Wishmaster wrote:Isn't what you say presupposing that people who download a pirated copy would have otherwise made a purchase? This has been a fallacious argument used by the music, movie and sofware industries for years. I'm not saying some of these people wouldn't have bought copies, but there's no way to tell what those proportions are. You can't measure lost sales without canvassing all those who downloaded copies, so it's pure guesswork.

No, I'm not saying that every pirated copy is a lost sale, but to people releasing their own work - especially books - piracy hits them harder than the likes of Luke Jermay who has (or at least had) publishing deals, credits on major TV shows and a DVD on Alakazam (before he ran his reputation into the ground by releasing nothing but tat). These are not luxuries afforded to those who have to release work themselves.

And you can't really point to the likes of Cory Doctorow and Radiohead for comparison, as they have sizeable followings. Radiohead are one of the biggest "alternative" (if you can even call them that) acts in the world, so In Rainbows would have covered its costs if they'd released it on minidisc. The pay-what-you-want idea was great for them because they're a huge band with a huge following, and the ensuing piracy didn't really damage them. That model doesn't scale down to self-released magic books.

I know if I was releasing a book I certainly would not make a PDF available to anybody, not even as a review copy. And even then, if it was any good, I'd expect it to leak eventually anyway, but why make it easy for them when there are ways to contain it?

madvillainy wrote:No, I'm not saying that every pirated copy is a lost sale, but to people releasing their own work - especially books - piracy hits them harder than the likes of Luke Jermay who has (or at least had) publishing deals, credits on major TV shows and a DVD on Alakazam (before he ran his reputation into the ground by releasing nothing but tat). These are not luxuries afforded to those who have to release work themselves.

I'm still not convinced. As an example, for as long as there have been computers, people have been pirating. I remember having a spectrum and swapping copied tapes with my mates in the playground. Even back then, software houses were saying how piracy was killing the industry, yet 25yrs later, it's still here and is now rivalling the movie industry. The thing is, in the day of the Internet and p2p etc. it makes more business sense to just allow for the fact that no matter what format your work is released in, someone will copy and distribute it. I'm not condoning it, but it's just a fact of life that it will happen. Best endevours to protect your work are fine, but even drm has done nothing to stop piracy. The more invasive the protection measures, the more legit customers will walk away. Look what happened to Sony! They went protection mad and lost a huge amount of custom and money. It's a balancing act.

madvillainy wrote:And you can't really point to the likes of Cory Doctorow and Radiohead for comparison, as they have sizeable followings.

Someone else did that pointing. I've never heard of Cory Doctorow. I'm an old fart.

madvillainy wrote:I know if I was releasing a book I certainly would not make a PDF available to anybody, not even as a review copy. And even then, if it was any good, I'd expect it to leak eventually anyway, but why make it easy for them when there are ways to contain it?

If I was in the position of selling something, I'd probably be twitchy about pdf sales, but I think reality would have to kick in. Those who want to pirate will do so, no matter what you do. Those who want to buy, will make a purchase. I'd rather sell 100 copies of a pdf and have 1000 downloaded via p2p than not release a pdf and sell none at all. But, I do appreciate the other argument. It's just what you're prepared to put up with.

All the best,
Wishmaster

madvillainy wrote:No, I'm not saying that every pirated copy is a lost sale, but to people releasing their own work - especially books - piracy hits them harder than the likes of Luke Jermay wthemselves.

And you can't really point to the likes of Cory Doctorow

Did you not read the links I posted about the niche authors giving away their work for free and making an increase in sales?

Let me precis. They gave away their work. Lots of them. And they sold more hard copies.

They were niche authors with rather small markets.
Not radiohead.

Let's face it, we're in the digital age and there's no going back

I personally prefer the feel and smell of a physical book, but I rarely buy CDs (instead buying MP3). And I see why people buy ebooks, especially with electronic book readers finally getting half decent (thanks amazon)

Piracy is always going to happen, but remember a pirated book/song/film isn't always a lost sale. In some cases, it might even mean a gained sale (just ask the Monty Python lot and any indie musician trying to make it out there)