It is important that ebooks be sold without DRM

Re:It is important that ebooks be sold without DRM by lrvick on Thursday October 19, 2023 @01:43AM (#37938941)

And when those people give me a low friction way to pay them without supporting DRM, I will gladly do so. Of note, none of those people get paid when you buy a secondhand copy of a paper book. Piracy is no different here.

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Re:It is important that ebooks be sold without DRM by lxgr on Thursday October 19, 2023 @09:05AM (#37942340)

> none of those people get paid when you buy a secondhand copy

Yes, which is why nobody is saying "buy second-hand books to support your favorite author".

Also, it's probably a small effect, but I'd guess that the existence of a secondary market contributes to at least some primary sales (since the buyers know they will probably be able to resell a book if they need to, making them more likely to buy a primary copy if they want to read it right now).

Somebody paid for a second-hand copy, nobody paid for a pirated copy.

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Re:It is important that ebooks be sold without DRM by lrvick on Thursday October 19, 2023 @12:55PM (#37945369)

"the existence of a secondary market contributes to at least some primary sales"

Incidentally, many favorite books that I pirated when I was broke and had very little room, I later bought paper copies of.

I also pirate most music, but if I really like a band I discovered via piracy, I will buy their vinyl or see them in concert.

The ability to freely share content scondhand, be it a paper book or in digital form, creates new fans. Some of those fans have money to give back, or will share with people that do.

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