3 ms·

> Piracy is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it means you receive no compensation for the benefit readers get from the work you put in. On the other hand,

> Piracy is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it means you receive no compensation for the benefit readers get from the work you put in. On the other hand, pirated books act as implicit marketing, expanding awareness of you and your book(s). They can also reach buyers who want to see the full product before making a purchasing decision or who wouldn't become aware of your book through conventional marketing efforts. The point I've emphasized above really matters a lot for people who do read many books. Despite select chapter previews that some publishers provide, there are people who really want to do their own evaluation of something before committing to buying it. > My feeling is that most people who choose pirated books are unlikely to pay for them, even if that's the only way to get them. As such, I'm inclined to think the marketing effect of illegal copies exceeds the lost revenue. I have no data to back me up. Maybe it's just a rationalization to help me live with the knowledge that no matter what you do, there's no way you can prevent bootleg copies of your books from showing up on the Net. Again, the emphasized sentence above has been known for a very long time in the areas of music, movies, TV shows, books - any content, actually. In my observation, people who pirate books also tend get into a habit of hoarding rather than reading (low disk/storage and bandwidth costs). Leaving aside the people who are in countries with poorer currencies and cannot really imagine buying a lot of the English language technical content produced, I doubt if the real loss in revenue is even substantial. Books also, depending on the subject, require investments of time, attention, memory and repeated reference, unlike movies, TV shows and music that most of the time require a "one time investment". So I would not consider books to be in the same category as others when it comes to piracy. I'm not at all happy with O'Reilly's decision, and did write to support at oreilly saying that this makes it difficult (finding DRM free content on amazon or elsewhere in multiple formats) and that I wouldn't be buying O'Reilly products again. I received a standard reply thanking me for the feedback and pointing me to the blog post. My guess is that the direct customer relationship and brand recognition through its website is going to be lost along with this decision. I don't know if O'Reilly will change the decision, but people who do value the freedom of DRM free content in different formats must voice their opinions by writing to O'Reilly support.

chii 9y ago
> I doubt if the real loss in revenue is even substantial. yes, i also agree. The content just needs to be made slightly difficult to pirate, to keep the honest people honest - but there's no need to invest in any expensive and difficult to maintain DRM (like an online check). Also, if content is easier to consume when pirated, then whose fault is it that more people would rather pirate than go though the official channel?
braziliandev 9y ago
> I doubt if the real loss in revenue is even substantial. I am not a fan of DRM. Less because of its restrictions, but more because of its low level of user experience (merely consequence of its restrictions, sure, but still), with publishers not making content available for this or that device, and with lack of smart features like lending/borrowing/transferring material. That said, and being from Latin America myself (Brazil), as well with connections in Asia (friends), I've heard many stories already that give an idea of thousands of developers that are consuming "paid" content downloaded through torrents/forums/dropboxes/etc, and never made the "honorable" payment. I am afraid you are underestimating the amount of developers in developing countries that consume books from O'Reilly and other publishers and are not paying at all for that, ultimately damaging investments on new material, both by publishers and authors. It is hardly the case of not being able to afford, but simply a cultural thing. For any author that thinks their content should be DRM-free and available to anyone, I don't understand why they don't publish on GitHub, and drop a link to their PayPal account for contributions. If they did, my bet would be on repositories with huge traffic (easy to monitor), but low pay-rate.
- voltagex_ 9y ago
  This is basically the same problem as monetising an open source project on GitHub. I don't know what O'Reilly's take of a 5-20USD eBook was, but I bet you the authors get more than your average Patreon. Even if you do convince someone to pay (did I read that 1% was a good conversion rate?), how difficult is it to get their money? How many are you going to lose to the PayPal login process? How much money is your payment processor going to take? While I've got you here (although this looks like a throwaway account), how easy is it for you to make a credit card payment to a US merchant from Brazil? Can you use Patreon? PayPal? Flattr? Also, Bitcoin is not the solution here.

chii 9y ago

> I doubt if the real loss in revenue is even substantial. yes, i also agree. The content just needs to be made slightly difficult to pirate, to keep the honest people honest - but there's no need to invest in any expensive and difficult to maintain DRM (like an online check). Also, if content is easier to consume when pirated, then whose fault is it that more people would rather pirate than go though the official channel?

braziliandev 9y ago

> I doubt if the real loss in revenue is even substantial. I am not a fan of DRM. Less because of its restrictions, but more because of its low level of user experience (merely consequence of its restrictions, sure, but still), with publishers not making content available for this or that device, and with lack of smart features like lending/borrowing/transferring material. That said, and being from Latin America myself (Brazil), as well with connections in Asia (friends), I've heard many stories already that give an idea of thousands of developers that are consuming "paid" content downloaded through torrents/forums/dropboxes/etc, and never made the "honorable" payment. I am afraid you are underestimating the amount of developers in developing countries that consume books from O'Reilly and other publishers and are not paying at all for that, ultimately damaging investments on new material, both by publishers and authors. It is hardly the case of not being able to afford, but simply a cultural thing. For any author that thinks their content should be DRM-free and available to anyone, I don't understand why they don't publish on GitHub, and drop a link to their PayPal account for contributions. If they did, my bet would be on repositories with huge traffic (easy to monitor), but low pay-rate.

voltagex_ 9y ago
This is basically the same problem as monetising an open source project on GitHub. I don't know what O'Reilly's take of a 5-20USD eBook was, but I bet you the authors get more than your average Patreon. Even if you do convince someone to pay (did I read that 1% was a good conversion rate?), how difficult is it to get their money? How many are you going to lose to the PayPal login process? How much money is your payment processor going to take? While I've got you here (although this looks like a throwaway account), how easy is it for you to make a credit card payment to a US merchant from Brazil? Can you use Patreon? PayPal? Flattr? Also, Bitcoin is not the solution here.