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by p_nathan 5625 days ago
She's popular to the tune of 800 free downloads per week and 10 sales per week.

Anecdotally, one of the ISVs over on Programmers.stackexchange had a piracy problem; when he started detecting pirated software and reminding the user to buy, not steal, his sales numbers directly went up.

I think this idea that downloading IP for free is ok is really wrong. If you want something, you should pay the price for it, whether the price be fixed or negotiated. IP piracy is theft.
4 comments
Tichy 5625 days ago
She didn't even say what stats site the "800" number came from. Could also be a completely bullshit number.

Personally contacting potential buyers might incite them to buy your book, no matter if they were pirates before or not. It doesn't necessarily scale to do that. Though some authors actually do promote their books (go on tours and read from the books, for example).

I don't want to defend downloading, but it is a fact of modern life, so complaining about it is unlikely to help.

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dholowiski 5625 days ago
Of course it's wrong, legally and usually morally too, but complaining about it won't fix anything.

If 800 people a week were downloading something of mine, after I was done dancing in the streets with joy, I'd try to figure out how to convert those downloads to fans, then sales.

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beoba 5625 days ago
Where do libraries fit in your world?
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p_nathan 5625 days ago
They have paid the price already. You pay the libraries cost either directly or through your taxes.
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olalonde 5625 days ago
So if I call up my local library and make sure the book is available, it is ethical to download the pirated copy... right?
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notquite 5625 days ago
No, you should check out the book so they know people are interested in it and perhaps then will order more copies. Maybe it would then be ok to download it and use it for the period you have it checked out, but even that is debatable because then you might be supporting the continuation of the illegal distribution, causing more people to download it illegally.
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beoba 5625 days ago
A single copy being handed out potentially infinitely! For free! THEFT!
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mattmanser 5625 days ago
Some countries actually pay a fee per time leant out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Lending_Right

And a single copy can only service a small number too, not an infinite number, as only one person can be in possession of it at one time and usually borrow it for weeks at a time.

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olalonde 5625 days ago
Making the front page on Reddit surely helped as well.
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