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by dudul 1308 days ago
I have written a book that ended up on Z-Library (and some other shadow libraries). It did bother me a little bit at first yes. I had spent hours of my spare time working on that book and, while I definitely didn't do it for the money, it still hurt a bit to think that folks could just download it for free.

But at the end of the day, I wrote my book to communicate knowledge I had and thought was valuable, and if people who couldn't afford the $30 got some value out of it then it was worth it. Now obviously it would be different for someone trying to make a living out of their writing.
1 comments
mdp2021 1308 days ago
> and if people who couldn't afford the $30

Be sure that some people in fact paid you the $30 only because they tried it first and said "this is worth it" (it is how it sometimes actually works).

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dudul 1308 days ago
Meh, that's an argument often heard "I'll download this game to try it and if I like it I'll buy it legit", but how often does it really happen? :). Maybe some did, but it's impossible to quantify.
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giantrobot 1308 days ago
Someone that downloads something and never pays for it is no different than them never downloading it but also never paying for it. They're non-customers.

There's also no difference between the game downloader and them playing a copy at their friend's house and deciding not to buy it. There's also no difference if they were to buy the game second hand.

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mdp2021 1308 days ago
I am not sure about the rhetoric: why should you quantify it?

If it is to calculate missed revenue: are you considering that the other side of what I have written - a fact - is that a number of people who downloaded an available copy of your book would not have bought it anyway?

Those relevant to the missed revenue are those who would have paid but did not: the number in that group is something that you can hardly quantify, and on the other hand you have gained buyers that would not have bought your book if they had not tried it.

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dmitriid 1308 days ago
"an increase in illegal consumption over time is found to correlate with an increase in legal consumption and vice versa"

In a study commissioned by Google: https://www.ivir.nl/publicaties/download/Global-Online-Pirac...

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