5 ms·

Yes, and long before the digital mode of distribution. I think there's a somewhat irrational fear from publishers that anyone with a personal computer can crea

Yes, and long before the digital mode of distribution. I think there's a somewhat irrational fear from publishers that anyone with a personal computer can create 1 million copies of a book almost instantly (ok, maybe a few hours, depending on disk speed), and distribute them almost as quickly. I imagine there were similar fears of the printing press from book scribes back in the 16th century. The reason why the fear is irrational is that the digital mode of distribution is actually constrained by the inherent ability of people to consume new information. You can read only so fast, so it makes no difference if you have 1 million different books "stolen" on your computer. Most of them would have never been read or even opened.

panarky 4y ago
> depending on disk speed One copy in memory can serve millions on your website.
- antisthenes 4y ago
  Thanks for the correction. Technically the copy is made by the computer you are sharing it with, not the original. My mind was dead-set on the printing press analogy for some reason.
  - naniwaduni 4y ago
    Both are making copies, probably multiple, mostly transitory, along with any number of intermediaries.
- JadeNB 4y ago
  > One copy in memory can serve millions on your website. But they have to download it, and you might not have the bandwidth to service millions of downloads in less than a few hours ….
  - selectodude 4y ago
    A million copies of a 10MB PDF is 10 terabytes. A gigabit internet connection could serve that in 22 hours. Pretty straightforward to do that.
    - JadeNB 4y ago
      > A million copies of a 10MB PDF is 10 terabytes. A gigabit internet connection could serve that in 22 hours. Pretty straightforward to do that. Yes, just so. The parent seemed to be arguing that it was too much to claim that it would take a few hours. I'd definitely call 22 hours at least a few!
      - tzs 4y ago
        That was at 10 MB per book, but that seems pretty high. Looking at the most popular books at Project Gutenberg suggests that 0.5 to 1.5 MB is where most fall.
    - fragmede 4y ago
      If you go the sponsored route and use a CDN, then at 10 TBit/second it would only take 18 hours to serve it 8 billion times (approx once for every human). But there's still bittorrent and if the file's popular, that gigabit upload won't be the limiting factor.
xani_ 4y ago
> The reason why the fear is irrational is that the digital mode of distribution is actually constrained by the inherent ability of people to consume new information. You can read only so fast, so it makes no difference if you have 1 million different books "stolen" on your computer. Most of them would have never been read or even opened. It's not. They want you to pay them for the book instead of just getting it for free.
drakonka 4y ago
That isn't the fear. The fear is that you as an author will not be paid for your work of creating and publishing the material because whoever wants a copy of the book will go pirate it instead of paying you. Luckily, for now, piracy doesn't seem to be making that huge a dent in author income as far as I know. Many people find it easier to buy their book with one click on Amazon or one of the other storefronts, or read through a bunch of books with a single Kindle Unlimited subscription. I'm not sure how long that will last. Some authors are updating their business model to include subscription services like Patreon, where they sell more direct interaction, character naming rights, early access, and additionally gated materials to dedicated readers. This is probably good to secure their income stream in the long term.

panarky 4y ago

> depending on disk speed One copy in memory can serve millions on your website.

antisthenes 4y ago
Thanks for the correction. Technically the copy is made by the computer you are sharing it with, not the original. My mind was dead-set on the printing press analogy for some reason.
- naniwaduni 4y ago
  Both are making copies, probably multiple, mostly transitory, along with any number of intermediaries.
JadeNB 4y ago
> One copy in memory can serve millions on your website. But they have to download it, and you might not have the bandwidth to service millions of downloads in less than a few hours ….
- selectodude 4y ago
  A million copies of a 10MB PDF is 10 terabytes. A gigabit internet connection could serve that in 22 hours. Pretty straightforward to do that.
  - JadeNB 4y ago
    > A million copies of a 10MB PDF is 10 terabytes. A gigabit internet connection could serve that in 22 hours. Pretty straightforward to do that. Yes, just so. The parent seemed to be arguing that it was too much to claim that it would take a few hours. I'd definitely call 22 hours at least a few!
    - tzs 4y ago
      That was at 10 MB per book, but that seems pretty high. Looking at the most popular books at Project Gutenberg suggests that 0.5 to 1.5 MB is where most fall.
  - fragmede 4y ago
    If you go the sponsored route and use a CDN, then at 10 TBit/second it would only take 18 hours to serve it 8 billion times (approx once for every human). But there's still bittorrent and if the file's popular, that gigabit upload won't be the limiting factor.

xani_ 4y ago

> The reason why the fear is irrational is that the digital mode of distribution is actually constrained by the inherent ability of people to consume new information. You can read only so fast, so it makes no difference if you have 1 million different books "stolen" on your computer. Most of them would have never been read or even opened. It's not. They want you to pay them for the book instead of just getting it for free.

drakonka 4y ago

That isn't the fear. The fear is that you as an author will not be paid for your work of creating and publishing the material because whoever wants a copy of the book will go pirate it instead of paying you. Luckily, for now, piracy doesn't seem to be making that huge a dent in author income as far as I know. Many people find it easier to buy their book with one click on Amazon or one of the other storefronts, or read through a bunch of books with a single Kindle Unlimited subscription. I'm not sure how long that will last. Some authors are updating their business model to include subscription services like Patreon, where they sell more direct interaction, character naming rights, early access, and additionally gated materials to dedicated readers. This is probably good to secure their income stream in the long term.