Scott Ingram <singram at videotron.ca> writes: > > The fact is, even very simple technical protections function > > sufficiently well to make people aware that the material is > > copyrighted and that it should not be redistributed. And that is > > the key point -- where people perceive purchasing the material to > > be the right thing to do, and the material is reasonably priced, > > that's what they will do. > > Define 'reasonable'. This amount varies from person to person, > country to country. Certain items sell for a lot more in the US > than they do in Canada, and certainly more in Canada than they sell > for in some third-world nation. Remember, most of the price of the book goes into the distribution system and the physical production. For a paperback the author gets something like 6-10% of the cover price, for a hardcover around 10-15%. So the end-user price could be considerably lower. There are no pulped/returned copies, no paper costs, no binding costs. And no local bookstores. (There's still editorial, art, design, promotion, and a number of other costs of course.) So I don't *know* what's feasible, but it may well be that an author could get the same income on fewer electronic sales. Or even a higher income. If the mass readership were prepared to read electronic copies, which they're not yet. However, I agree completely with your point that there is not, so far as I know, any actual large stock of good fiction that the traditional publishing channels are refusing to publish. As you say, a fair amount of what *does* get published is bad. > As for people being more likely to do what they perceive to be the right > thing... well, I guess I'm more cynical than you are, and I'll leave it at > that. I see people go to extra trouble to do the right thing *every day*. While still seeing people do the wrong thing fairly often. > > (How do I know this? When I'm wearing my professional hat I > > manage a website that does almost exactly what I am describing, > > for a different type of content, and makes not at all trivial > > amounts of money doing so.) > > > > > Although theft of books has always been somewhat of a problem, > > > it would be MUCH more of a problem if they were published > > > online. > > > > That's entirely a matter of opinion at this point. > > As is the contrary point of view. > > -Scott Ingram > > -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net / http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info