Selling out-of-print material via pdfs seems like a no-brainer. Those items are out there for people who want to pirate them, which right now is about the only way to get them without going though the reseller market (which again provides them no additional revenue). They aren't delivering these products in any form, so the best they can do it to make no money off them. At least with pdf sold through an online retailer they have a chance to make more than zero.
Yes, and my point was that they are effectively punishing people like me who don't pirate stuff. Why it's taking them so long to figure out that selling them again means free money is beyond me.
It may be now they either have data, or at least the idea, that sale of old material does not negatively impact sale of new material.
Yes, and my point was that they are effectively punishing people like me who don't pirate stuff. Why it's taking them so long to figure out that selling them again means free money is beyond me.
Well, first off, even if they figured it out a while ago, corporations can't always change their behavior the instant they realize they ought to. New agreements need to be hammered out, and while you call it "free money", it isn't exactly free, so budget cycles may need to be accommodated.
I think, however, the lag was in the old "competing with themselves" idea - that if they sell you pdfs of old books (especially cheap pdfs), they are giving you reason to not be a customer for their current line of products, which probably have a higher profit margin, and for which they very much want to build the ever-useful "network externalities".
It may be now they either have data, or at least the idea, that sale of old material does not negatively impact sale of new material.