Today on my site...

[seawasp]

... Musings on "Internet Piracy", from my own perspective!

Comments

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

You might recall Lars Ulrich's public statements about how evil Napster was back in the day. Fast forward to 2007 and a documentary film titled "Global Metal". Sam Dunn interviewed Ulrich in this film and the question about on-line music sharing and downloading came up because there are parts of the world like Iran where that's the only way that music fans can get western music. Ulrich answer was a sheepish admission that it's good that these fans can get their hands on his music. It wasn't an apology for what he said and did but it was an admission that downloading and sharing isn't all bad.

[seawasp]

Yep, I remember the animations making fun of him. "NAPSTER... BAAAD!"

[blake77.livejournal.com]

Two more possible groups of downloaders:

A) Download the item because they could not get it legally.

B) Download the item because they think it is overpriced.

Sometimes, digital items are region locked, which prevents people from legally purchasing said items. Case in point is the Amazon Kindle store.

There are also people who due to past experiences, finding items that they thought they had bought, turns out to be rented only. There also people who have purchased the items in one format, but downloaded it in other formats.

[seawasp]

Those points, except tangentially the legally bit, were touched farther down in the article.

[kengr]

Unlike music and video, there's another category (or at least a variant of ones of the ones you listed, which one is a matter of opinion).

Folks who *have* the actual, physical book, but want an ebook version. And without DRM if possible.

With cassettes and records, it's only a minor pain to convert them to digital format for your own use (Audacity does just fine, with split the record or cassette into individual tracks being the biggest pain).

With books, it's *lot* harder. Not only do you have to scan every page, but you have to proofread it and try to get the formatting fixed. (it's going to be *hell* if I ever get around to trying to do that to my collection of Astounding/Analog which goes back to the 30s)

If you do it yourself, it's legal, much as a number of publishers (and the RIAA/MPAA when it comes to records, tapes and video cassettes) would like claim otherwise.

But if you download a copy someone else made, suddenly it's illegal? Yeah, it's illegal for them to have put it up (but not to have made it).

With Baen, at least I can get current release in ebook format at a reasonable price and (when I have spare cash) I can pick up stuff I already owned in hardcopy.

With other publishers, not so much. Overpriced, *and* DRM? No thanks. It don't want my copies to disappear. Or get altered.

Though Baen has done that last a few times. Redownload something and discover that there were "interesting" changes.

[kjn]

The last thing wasn't unknown with print books either. Usually there are plenty of small changes between the hardcover and the paperback releases (the paperback is often considered the "definite" release), and there have been cases with huge changes between editions.

One infamous example is Bertil Mårtensson's 70s debut novel Detta är verkligheten where the first edition (with a blue cover) lacked the last 16 pages (it happened more than once with that publisher). The second edition had all the pages, was marked as a new edition and had a red cover, but it had the same ISBN number, so ordering a new copy without seeing it could be problematic.

[q99.livejournal.com]

It is amazing how many companies stick to old mindsets and models on 'piracy' and control of digital media at the same time many other companies are making money hand over fist.

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

Seems a reasonable overall view of the situation.

Some do fall into the category of wanting the ebook and owning the hardback or paperback and there not being an ebook available. For any of a number of reasons. That group also actively goes out and grabs things. On the other claw I've bought so many ebooks from amazon over the last 5 years that when that settlement came out they gave me several hundred dollars worth of credit and a significant check in the mail. So I think maybe I have been out there doing my part to buy books. ;) I think my e library is around 3000 books now.

[richardboustead.livejournal.com]

Legality and price are HUGE factors for me sitting in little out-of-the-way New Zealand.

Take the HBO series "Game of Thrones". My options to watch this show (and avoid spoilers) are:
a) Wait nine months for the DVD box set, avoiding social media the whole time
b) Pay $82/year for a SKY-SOHO subscription (+$99 setup fee and two weeks for the technician to install the decoder and dish) to get it about six hours after the US.
c) Illegally download it.

Granted, that's an extreme example, but things get screwy with smaller things as well. Say I want to purchase the Kindle e-book of "Spheres of Influence" by Ryk E Spoor. In the US, that'll be $8.99 and instant download from October 16, 2013 through Amazon.
I open up my Amazon account, locked to NZ, and the price rises to $9.02 and it's availability is now November 3, 2013.

Three cents and three weeks isn't really all that much, but this is for an e-book. Last I checked, it shouldn't cost more or take longer for electrons to bounce half-way around the world. (For the author's information, I did purchase it legally. And a paperback copy as well for that matter)

iTunes is also guilty of this. My iTunes client advertises an album for $12.99, but when I log in to purchase it, the price has risen to $18.99. Because I'm in NZ, not the United States. Buying it at a bricks-and-mortar store in NZ is virtually impossible now, since they've basically all shut down except for mega-retailers who take 6 months to order stuff in from the States and then charge $30.

Gabe Newell of Steam said that "Piracy is not a pricing problem, it's a service problem", and I cannot agree with him enough on this statement.

That said, the Baen Free Library was where I picked up a book called "Digital Knight"...and well the rest is history. Chalk that up as another anecdote that free giveaways combat obscurity.