By Maryann Yin on Galley Cat, May 24, 2011
The High Low tackled one of the toughest questions facing publishers: “Will eBooks become the next Napster?” They quoted some surprising statistics.
Here’s more from the article: “One in every three people who download e-books on their digital readers do so illegally, according to a survey of 1,959 consumers conducted by a British law firm … Record labels notoriously lost millions thanks to Napster (which was eventually ruled illegal), and now publishers are staring down the same tunnel.”
The same survey also revealed that twenty five percent of those who admitted to illegally downloading eBooks would continue to do so in the future. Because illegally downloaded books are not physical objects, pirates tend not to classify their activities as stealing. What do you think about this dilemma?
2 comments:
There isn’t much of a price difference between the print & electronic version – so maybe, downloading books illegally is what the e-readers resort to, mainly to save money, having paid a price for a nook or kindle already.
With e-book readers in the market, this should have been foreseen.
An interesting article on e-books v/s paperbacks: http://librarywalablogs.blogspot.com/2011/04/papreabcks-and-harbacks-vs-e-books.html
This is a greater threat to the writer than to the musician, because musicians can still make money on live performances. A few writers do well on the lecture circuit, but most, if they don't get paid for what they write, can't get paid for performing it.
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