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Unlike physical objects, copying digital goods has a zero cost, including for the author. So when the pricing does not reflect this (e.g. when ebook's and print

by zerr 3y ago

Unlike physical objects, copying digital goods has a zero cost, including for the author. So when the pricing does not reflect this (e.g. when ebook's and printed book's price is in the same order), it encourages unauthorised copying. It makes me think that sub-dollar and single digit pricing for digital goods are fair and expected.

sbuttgereit 3y ago
This premise is terribly flawed and thus the conclusion is terribly flawed. First, the premise completely ignores the costs related to producing the original work being copied. That cost of development can at the very least be assigned to each copy made. And the assertion that "copying digital goods has a zero cost" is also false: if you've managed free access to electricity, storage, bandwidth, computer equipment, etc. let me know where so I can look to moving there. To be fair, many of those costs on a per unit basis are typically very small, but they are crucially not zero. Second. Prices are not a reflection of cost, but of value to the purchaser. Sure, when you produce a product, digital or otherwise, you are thinking about the cost to produce and trying to manage that aspect, but whatever the cost is it doesn't determine what the market will pay nor should it. If the product is highly valuable to a buyer, they'll pay more. To the degree you manage your costs relative to what the market will bear for the price, you will either profit to some variable degree or... if the market doesn't value you product for as much as it cost you... you'll lose your shirt. And yes, if I take a year to produce a piece of software and value my time producing it at say a modest $100k for my time, I could copy that software a billion times over only sell 10 copies: I'd only even break if each copy were sold at $10k each. It's true this isn't exactly a "Costs of Goods Sold" scenario in the regular sense, but it ultimately ends up meaning the same thing. So looking at just the cost of copying a digital asset without considering both the full cost of producing the asset relative to sales tells you nothing about what is fair in pricing. To be clear: a fair price is one where the money you spend on the product is less than the value you receive from that product in return. The actual dollar amount is irrelevant to it being a digital good, tangible good, or service.
splitstud 3y ago
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by zerr 3y ago

sbuttgereit 3y ago

This premise is terribly flawed and thus the conclusion is terribly flawed. First, the premise completely ignores the costs related to producing the original work being copied. That cost of development can at the very least be assigned to each copy made. And the assertion that "copying digital goods has a zero cost" is also false: if you've managed free access to electricity, storage, bandwidth, computer equipment, etc. let me know where so I can look to moving there. To be fair, many of those costs on a per unit basis are typically very small, but they are crucially not zero. Second. Prices are not a reflection of cost, but of value to the purchaser. Sure, when you produce a product, digital or otherwise, you are thinking about the cost to produce and trying to manage that aspect, but whatever the cost is it doesn't determine what the market will pay nor should it. If the product is highly valuable to a buyer, they'll pay more. To the degree you manage your costs relative to what the market will bear for the price, you will either profit to some variable degree or... if the market doesn't value you product for as much as it cost you... you'll lose your shirt. And yes, if I take a year to produce a piece of software and value my time producing it at say a modest $100k for my time, I could copy that software a billion times over only sell 10 copies: I'd only even break if each copy were sold at $10k each. It's true this isn't exactly a "Costs of Goods Sold" scenario in the regular sense, but it ultimately ends up meaning the same thing. So looking at just the cost of copying a digital asset without considering both the full cost of producing the asset relative to sales tells you nothing about what is fair in pricing. To be clear: a fair price is one where the money you spend on the product is less than the value you receive from that product in return. The actual dollar amount is irrelevant to it being a digital good, tangible good, or service.

splitstud 3y ago

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