An article at techradar.com says it all in this sentence: “There isn’t much illegal content to drive hardware sales, which mean [sic] that the Kindle is some way away from being the iPod of books. If publishers are smart, they’ll keep it that way.” The writer’s premise is that adopting the new technology will make books easily copied and therefore re-sold and shared illegally. The publishers, the writer claims, will be shooting themselves in the foot if they digitize books. Read the article here.
The truth is illegal content will be created by the traditional publishing houses’ stubborn and greedy adherence to outdated business practices and the forcing of that corporate, quarterly-profit-driven business model on the new technology, in a marketplace that favors the consumer with access and choice.
I couldn’t put it more simply: AFFORDABLE PRODUCTS MAKE PIRACY UNPROFITABLE and FILE SHARING A WASTE OF TIME! And people don’t like to waste time. Indeed, as he says, digital technology has changed the music industry, but it has also changed things for the creators of that music and fans through availability, a vastly larger marketplace and affordable prices, yah?
