Consequences of 'Free?'

[Steerpike]

Interesting two-part column. Whether one agrees with the author or not, in part or in whole, it is an interesting subject of discussion for any person who hopes to make an income through their creative work product. The article is concerned primarily with music, but I think ebook piracy will continue to grow in the coming years.

Column - How free is ruining everything (Part 1) - News - QTheMusic.com

 

[Philip Overby]

I think people do feel entitled to get everything for free. If it's available for free, why would you pay for it? I personally don't like watching pirated movies, not because I'm afraid of getting caught, but because I want to pay for something I enjoy. That's just sort of ingrained in me. Plus, I'm a big theater goer. I just like the experience. As far as music, there are plenty of free music radio networks on the internet now. I use them, but I assume they are paying for rights to play the music like any other radio station does.

How this relates to books, I think offering books for free on Kindle or some such is a good promotional tool which can work if you are careful. As far as pirating books, I don't really understand that.

 

[Ophiucha]

It's a difficult issue, in many ways. Authors have no other source of revenue when it comes to their works. While musicians could have their works pirated and still make thousands performing concerts, and movies have theatres to draw in revenue in an experience that can't really be "stolen" - particularly if you enjoy 3D films and don't care to pay for a 3D TV. Authors? They might go to a convention or a book signing, but they're very rarely paid to do so. Hell, some of them have to pay out of pocket to get to the venue, though publishers are pretty good at providing them with that sort of thing these days.

That said, shutting down Megaupload and Pirate Bay and literary equivalents of Napster won't stop pirating. Honestly, unless there's some sort of internet apocalypse, I don't think we'll ever be able to stop it. Now it's about adapting to a market where you have to assume that people can obtain your product for free. And I don't know if we've quite figured it out yet. Offering all novels as ebooks will help, I think. A lot of pirated novels are scanned or hand-typed copies of novels that were never published digitally. Getting a consensus on the price of an ebook would help, too. Right now, an ebook can be anywhere from $1 to $30, if we're just talking your typical trade paperback book.

And, well, here's some examples, via the Kindle market,

A Dance of Dragons, $15 for digital, $10 for MM paperback, $21 for hardcover
A Wise Man's Fear, $10 for digital, $12 for paperback, $20 for hardcover
Lord of the Rings, $10 for digital, $12 for paperback, $25 for hardcover
Akata Witch, $15 for digital, $12 for hardcover
Mistborn, book 1, $8 for digital, $8 for paperback
Dark Tower, the digital prices range from $8 to $13, somewhat randomly
Embassytown, $12 for digital, $11 for paperback

Notice how nearly all of them are more expensive than the paperback, or the same price? I love ebooks, but... there aren't many books I want enough that I'd pay $10 for a digital copy when I could just spend $10 for a physical copy. Lowering the price of ebooks so they're consistently cheaper than the paperback editions would likely help the market a lot. After all, iTunes and Steam are widely regarded as some of the greatest combatants of piracy of music and video games respectively, because it's convenient. And iTunes, at least, offers the great service of paying-per-song, which often makes the purchases cheaper than buying a physical CD.

I think the only way to combat piracy of ebooks is going to be to cut the price of ebooks, probably down to $5/book, maybe $6 or $7 for the big sellers like George R.R. Martin, and standardize the ebook market a bit more. Right now the big market is Amazon, which is a great site and service, but it isn't primarily an ebook service. It's an online store that happens to offer ebooks. We'd probably need a dedicated service for it - or the Nook or something - in order for it to get as big as digital film and music. Oh, and audio books! Audible is a fantastic service, basically a Netflix for audiobooks. It's not unlimited, but let's be honest, audiobooks are often ten to twenty hours, so it's not like you can really go through too many in a month, anyway. A service like that, a reliable ebook library with a subscription fee, now that'd cut down piracy by a heckuva lot.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Notice how nearly all of them are more expensive than the paperback, or the same price? I love ebooks, but... there aren't many books I want enough that I'd pay $10 for a digital copy when I could just spend $10 for a physical copy.

Our priorities probably just differ, but to me I'd rather have the ebook than the physical copy. Mostly because I hate Having Stuff and as long as I have my phone with me (or access to a computer) I have access to my entire Kindle library. I've read hundreds of books in physical format in my life, but all things considered I prefer ebooks.

The DRM isn't an issue for me.

 

[Ophiucha]

Oh, I tend to prefer ebooks, myself, unless it's just a really nice physical book - like leather-bound, gold leaf, etc. - but there is something unpleasant about the price difference. Namely, the fact that it tends to cost $3.50 to $4.50 to print a book, depending on the publisher. If you've got a $10 paperback where $4 are going to the printers, you're talking $6 for the publisher, distributor (Barnes & Nobles, Amazon, whatever), and the author. If you're charging $10 for the ebook... well, then that's $10 to the publisher, distributor, and author. And if you're talking $15 for an ebook that'd cost $10 for a printed copy, I have trouble seeing that as anything but just plain greed. And you have to wonder how much of that gets back to the author...

 

[Androxine Vortex]

Our priorities probably just differ, but to me I'd rather have the ebook than the physical copy. Mostly because I hate Having Stuff and as long as I have my phone with me (or access to a computer) I have access to my entire Kindle library. I've read hundreds of books in physical format in my life, but all things considered I prefer ebooks.

The DRM isn't an issue for me.

I actually prefer having a physical book. There's just something about it that I enjoy over a lit up screen. Whenever I purchase something it makes me think, "I am a consumer and by purchasing this product, I am in a way supporting whatever it is I am buying. So if I am buying a CD from a band I like, I am supporting that band by making a small contribution. It kind of gives you a sense of empowerment albeit a small one. You are able to say, "Yeah, I helped contribute to [insert band name here]

People like free stuff. It's a fact (yes it is) I admit even sometimes when I am looking On Demand for movies to watch the price will be $2.00 and I immediately go, "Ah man I have to pay?" Even though the price was low, I still wanted free. Technically nothing is free. Because it costs to create something. I don't care if you made a piece of paper with a drawing on it and gave it away for "free." It's free to give away but it DID cost to make. It took resources (paper, ink, time) So nothing is really free and in today's age it is easy to steal. I agree with Ophiucha, there's really no way to stop piracy. It's like trying to stop drugs or drunk driving.

 

[ShortHair]

What we're seeing is a consequence of digital technology. In the analog age, you had to buy a physical book, which meant someone had to select, edit, print, market, and distribute said book. The key part of that is "select." Editors decided what people wanted to read based on what people bought in the past. If westerns were selling, they published more westerns.

Now anyone can access, in effect, every book ever written. Beyond the cost of Internet access, those books are free (for someone patient enough or skilled enough, yes, they're all free). We have infinite choice. How does one book, your book, even begin to compete for attention? And if nobody ever reads your work, what's the point of writing it? There's no incentive.

One solution I've heard suggested is for providers to pay a flat rate to anyone who contributes content. That means I can churn out a crappy book every month while you take a year to craft a masterpiece. I make twelve times as much for my crap. Again, there's no incentive.

Well, very few people make a living writing fantasy. We do it because we want to, even have to. If someone else reads it and enjoys it, that someone will pass it along. If enough people enjoy it, you become respected, if not famous. That's your incentive.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I'm partial to the articles the creator of Kudos has posted about how he minimized piracy of that game. A few tips that adapt well to books:

Give free samples. Give long free samples. People will pay for the complete story if they've read enough to be interested.

Don't overcharge. Set your story to a price your readers will be willing to pay.

Make your story worth reading. People will still pay for quality.

(Personally, I've never been paid for fiction, and I'm kind of okay with that.)

 

[gavintonks]

this blog is free, except we pay for bandwidth so they could easily create a business model based on bandwidth, I am also concerned with some poor quality stuff we pay for and then you feel stiffed, I also put my first book on for free and have had lots of downlaods so I give back where I have taken think it balances out, and people understand the web so I have also found if people can see for fre they promote it and it actually benefits the sales. if they advertise and a % of my money goes to promotion having a few free downlaods is the best advertising, the good stuff i still buy, I keep on buying the wall every time a new format comes out for instance

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

I read the article. Rather, I read the first half of the first page and I wanted to put my fist through the monitor. Mainly because the whole article is pitched as a "noble upstanding defenders of copyright" versus "cheap selfish pirates" thing, which is a false dichotomy and utterly useless. (He does sometimes ask "Are they pioneers of freedom, or just cheap pirates?" but it's pretty clear that he believes they're just cheap pirates.)

Yes, old business models are failing because of new disruptive technology. Yes, nobody's really sure how things are going to settle out (or even if they will any time in the near future). But what I don't understand is why anyone (except for those with entrenched interests, obviously) would have a problem with this. Like, oh no! Somehow we're going to end up with no culture? Not bloody likely. Piracy is still a minority of the transactions involved (that is, most people are happy to buy stuff) and where piracy is high it's usually because prices are too high or acquisition is too complex/expensive.

Yeah, it's hard to find quality stuff when every Joe can self-publish, but that just creates a market for good critical condensation and analysis: we'll sift through the crap and find the good stuff for you. It's still an emerging market, obviously, but there's a huge amount of room to grow.

Really, in a year when the Avengers made more than a billion dollars at the box office, we're concerned that the availability of media might somehow be in danger?

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Okay, I'm about to show my age here....

With the exception of the sheer volume involved, I don't see much difference in the present and the past concerning free music or literature. When I was a kid we used to tape records, other tapes, and eventually CDs. Hell we even taped songs off the radio. We gave the tapes to friends for free & no one ever bitched about piracy.

Books have been around in print for eons & they always been loaned or given from one friend to another until it ends up on a thrift store shelf, re-selling for a dollar. No one has ever bitched about that.

Now, in the digital age, this is a major issue. The way I see it, there's 2 reason for this heightened concern:

1) As stated at the top..... The volume, due to digital availability, is massive compared to my examples above. Therefore, publishers & producers see what they believe to be lost revenue.

2) The ability to control the media is greater now with digital technology. Yes there are ways to circumvent technological controls. That's what these people pirating are accused of doing. However, I will submit that the producers actually have more control now over their material than ever before. Only because technology has allowed them to actually track lost revenue has it become an issue.

I don't buy pirated movies, download free music, or steal e-books. I pay for everything I use. I'd like to believe this is true of most people. Maybe I'm naive in that regard.

Still I have to think this all comes from an increased ability to control & a desire to tighten that control as much as possible. To be honest, I have zero problem with that. A pricing argument is weak..... If it's too expensive then don't buy it. Enough people not buying a product will affect that price. If people are paying the cost then it's obviously not too high. I support the idea that artist, producers, & publisher should be able to maximize profits (and for that matter, anyone in any type of business).

 

[Penpilot]

I don't know if it's really possible to stop piracy. If there's enough people with enough determination and skill to do it, they will. It's always been the case even before the internet. With that said, I wonder if those downloading pirated copies of things are people who would have bought the product at all. It's like people who download free a book that's being given away for free. If that book wasn't free would they have paid to download it?

In a crazy skewed way, the more a pirate downloads, the better it may be. There's only so much media a person can consume. So what if a person has ten million books, movies, and songs. Will they really be able to read, watch, and listen to them all? No.

Now don't construe this as me advocating piracy. I'm not. But to me it seems like they're grabbing at a handful of jello, the harder they squeeze, the more it slips between their fingers.

Everyone has gotten media for free at one time or another, through borrowing at the library or friends. How many people have been turned on to something good because of that free exposure. Maybe that's what producers should focus on, how to exploit piracy and use it to their favor.

I'm no expert. I'm pretty much talking out of my arse. I'm mostly going from my personal experience of borrowing books and movies from friends and finding that I like them so much, I go out and buy my own copies. I also have a pile of dozens of physical books that I struggle to make time to read along with the dozens of ebooks too. If I got million more books dropped into my lap, I'd be like handing a drowning man a glass of water.

Any ways my two cents.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Okay, I'm about to show my age here....

With the exception of the sheer volume involved, I don't see much difference in the present and the past concerning free music or literature. When I was a kid we used to tape records, other tapes, and eventually CDs. Hell we even taped songs off the radio. We gave the tapes to friends for free & no one ever bitched about piracy.

Actually, they did. The music industry (the RIAA in particular) threw a hissy fit when cassette tapes came out and made copying much easier than it had been. The MPAA lost their freaking minds when VCRs came out and people could record things. Jack Valenti, the head of the MPAA at the time, said in front of Congress:

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

Maybe you didn't hear about it, but there was a lot of controversy around it. (Then, later, they figured out that home video was a huge revenue stream...)

 

[Steerpike]

Maybe you didn't hear about it, but there was a lot of controversy around it. (Then, later, they figured out that home video was a huge revenue stream...)

Yes, there was actually a landmark lawsuit over it. Sony Corp v. Universal City Studios.

http://www.oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1982/1982_81_1687/

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Nope never heard of that.... Interesting.