Interesting speech on DRM

[Umbran]

In other words, he's made pretty good hardcopy sales at the same time the books were available for free download from anywhere. There's a lesson in there, somewhere.

Not as much as one might think. And it won't teach us much until print on demand becomes common. While he's correct that people read more and more on video screens these days, it is still true that for pleasure reading, people really don't prefer those video screens. Folks still prefer physical books, which are still reasonably cheap.

 

[JBowtie]

Not as much as one might think. And it won't teach us much until print on demand becomes common. While he's correct that people read more and more on video screens these days, it is still true that for pleasure reading, people really don't prefer those video screens. Folks still prefer physical books, which are still reasonably cheap.

Unless by reasonably cheap you mean $25-30 for a paperback novel, $75-100 for an RPG hardback, and $150 for technical textbook, there are lots of reasons why electronic versions drive the sale of physical versions in some countries.

 

[Umbran]

Unless by reasonably cheap you mean $25-30 for a paperback novel...

Hm. That doesn't mean much to me out of context, because "cheap" is a relative term. How much does a loaf of bread, a 2 liter bottle of soda, a car, a liter of gasoline, a movie, or dinner at a modest restaurant cost you?