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Pirated ebooks have definitely chiselled away at the business. I haven’t paid for a work of fiction in nearly a decade thanks to ebook-sharing communities. Just
by Mediterraneo10 5y ago
Pirated ebooks have definitely chiselled away at the business. I haven’t paid for a work of fiction in nearly a decade thanks to ebook-sharing communities. Just 2–3 years ago LibGen was something known only to a niche of torrentfreaks, but it seems like suddenly all of my bookish friends know about it and use it.
(The exception is when I like a classic work of literature enough to want to buy a hardback copy that will last the decades. But that almost always means buying on the used market, because older hardbacks had quality sewn bindings, while hardbacks today are likely to have flimsy glued bindings. So, thanks to publishers skimping on quality, the author gets no remuneration even when a reader of the ebook decides to purchase the physical artifact.)
- kingsuper20 5y agoI agree with everything you've said here. I haven't bought a paperback for years (decades?). Now that I think of it, practically every book I have any interest in is OOP or there is a nicer version of it available from some time ago. In terms of ebooks, it'll be interesting to see if we continue to live in an increasing land o' plenty in terms of copyright violation (also including music and video) or if the hammer will come down on that. It's easy to imagine a legion of paratroopers outfitted in Disney uniforms doing a bit of digital axing on servers throughout the world. One implication might be that this is the time to become a data hoarder.