The other thing is the sheer volume. For every print book that’s bought, it might change hands a dozen times. The original purchaser buys the book, reads it and then lends it to a few mates. It then goes to a second-hand bookstore and sells to someone else, etc. An ebook, purchased by one person, could easily go to a dozen other readers within minutes, all at the same time. They could easily send it to a dozen more and so on. Someone could put it up on a file-sharing site and then it goes (potentially) to thousands. Therein lies the fundamental difference and it is significant.

Then again, I reiterate: Obscurity is worse than piracy.

The analogy is: in terms of author revenue, piracy : DRM’ed e-books :: used books : paper books.

As in, both piracy and used book sales are ways to spread a book outside of the original distribution channels and also without providing revenue to the author.

I hasten to add that I am neither advocating piracy nor equating it with the legal and widely accepted practice of selling used books. What I’m trying to suggest is that with used books we already have a long and established tradition of not compensating creators for sales of their work (beyond the initial purchase), and yet to most people the argument that “used book sales are depriving authors of income” would, while accurate, sound strange because of all the other benefits used books offer for readers, authors, and publishers alike.

My speculation (and feel free to poke holes in it, albeit gently please) is that DRM-cracking and piracy could end up becoming the digital realm’s equivalent of the used book market, and that it will play a roughly similar role. Authors, publishers, and distributors will reluctantly but ultimately realize that the gains outweigh the losses — if not financially, then in terms of audience building and publicity.

Whaddya think?

sidp – What did MP3s do to the CD? Just about everyone I know listens to an iPod or similar now. People still buy CDs, sure. I do as well. I rip them into iTunes, put them on my phone and the CD itself is rarely, if ever, played again. Ebooks might not have stuck with you now, but there are still people that play vinyl records too. Just like MP3s, ebooks will become ubiquitous.

Elf – Ziplock is a great idea. Good for the beach too, with sand and salt, etc. Although I’m reliably informed that you can get waterproof covers anyway. Certainly a ziplock is cheaper!

See, what you do is buy TWO copies – read one and don’t touch the other.

Yes, wet-ware, but the interfaces you’d need to call the space colony are no longer powered, so that solution won’t cut it.

I won’t be burning my books to keep from freezing, and neither will you. I’m burning people; that doesn’t offend my sense of morality and I can collect the fat to make candles so as to keep right on reading BOOKS.

As I mentioned earlier, as an author I should be for DRM because I know I’m losing income on pirate copies of my books. But I don’t think it’s a big enough issue – I’d prefer to put up with the piracy, which will happen with or without DRM – and have DRM free books for the vast majority of honest people out there.

I can’t remember who said it, but the old quote springs to mind: Obscurity is worse than piracy.

Note: when you smell a book, particularly an old one, you’re smelling industrial chemicals and the scent of paper in the long, slow process of rotting. It’s the smell of decay. Give me an ereader any time.

You might be interested to know you can, in fact, get waterproof cases for Kindles and the like. So yes, you can read them in the bath.

But by all means take your ball and go home and punish me by never buying a book of mine. Yet you accuse me of, “I know you are but what am I?”

You claim quite clearly that SF fans have a particular obligation to accept e-readers because of SF’s themes (“…embrace the future, or forever hang up your SF fandom”). Then you try, poorly, to dodge that claim when called on it. Quoting my comment and saying “that’s ridiculous” (and nothing more) makes you look more foolish than if you had just ignored me. It’s the equivalent of “I know you are but what am I?” You’ve done precisely nothing to rebut my very straightforward comparison.

But I learned long ago not to waste time debating on the interwebs with people who have no grasp of the basic rules of debate. Adieu, and rest assured that I won’t bother you again, nor will I pick up one of your books the next time I’m browsing the stacks.