The ethics of "free" e-books

[HammerOfGod]

Reading vs. Listening...

For $30 you can buy a software program from AT&T that will give your computer a 16 bit Voice...

you can set it up on your computer as the Computer voice for Microsoft Reader, Adobe reader or you can download free reader software...

With Open Office Word processor you can convert any text off of your computer to PDF and your Adobe Reader can read your e-book back to you...this eliminates the need to look at a monitor screen all day while reading a novel...

many of the e-book downloads can be in Microsoft Reader...which also has a read back function...

and you can download a free reader called Natural Reader ...the one drawback is that any text you want read back to you has to be converted to plain text...but that can be done with a mouse click..

With my eyesight problem over the years I came to rely on text-to-speech software...so been using it for years...

[Intercept]

I have a friend who used to work at Universal Music. By the end of his tenure there and when he moved on to other business opportunities, he was firmly entrenched in the belief that big music labels are nothing but money grubbing bastards.

The cut an artist receives from CD sales is absolute peanuts. That's how the record companies make money. The great majority of an artist's money comes from concerts, advertisements, residuals (concert t-shirts, the highway robbery on water bottles during concerts, etc). This is why the shift in the music industry is incomparable to books. The free exchange of mp3s only makes an artist richer, because it means more people exposed to his/her music will come to the concerts.

Authors don't depend on live appearances to get paid.

[cseresz]

[quote name='Tom the Merciful' post='1460422' date='Jul 29 2008, 14.41']And one thing mentioned in the article made me laugh - a mentioned possibility that users who download will be cut off from internet.[/quote]

The first steps:

[url="http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=87712&videoChannel=6"]http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=...;videoChannel=6[/url]

[url="http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL2233689520080222"]http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyN...233689520080222[/url]

[url="http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jzoG9VuGSqhNaeYfGrbjbwqzZNfg"]http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jzoG9V...eYfGrbjbwqzZNfg[/url]

[url="http://futurezone.orf.at/it/stories/290943/"]http://futurezone.orf.at/it/stories/290943/[/url]

[url="http://www.afa-france.com/p_20080624.html"]http://www.afa-france.com/p_20080624.html[/url]

[url="http://www.the-news.net/cgi-bin/google.pl?id=965-16"]http://www.the-news.net/cgi-bin/google.pl?id=965-16[/url]

[Tom the Merciful]

My laugh suddenly turns to choke.

Seems that pressure is high. I never thought it would come that far. So it seems that music industry has a considerable lobbying power.

As I am working for an ISP, I know how reluctant they are to unplug anybody from the net. Despite the articles, I don't think it'll become a mass occurence. I wouldn't rule out possibility that they are just buying time to make full assessment.

[Lady Winter Rose]

nevermind, wrong topic.

[polishgenius]

That's a hell of a necro.

Well, we do encourage people to search before they post...

[Lady Winter Rose]

Honestly, I tried to find something where I could write about free self-published books found on smashword or other medium and this title cought my eye (I searched on google). I usually have multiple tabs open, and I confused one tab with another...

[Lady Winter Rose]

On topic - I think "free" ebooks may fuction as e-library. Here in Croatia, people love to borrow books from library and only buy the book if they really like it. They often borrow first book and buy the next instalment, or buy whole series.

I believe free sample of book is good advertising - but only if the book is decent.

[TrackerNeil]

I bet in a world where all books come in an e-book version, and all e-books are free to download, but you can easily choose to pay the writer directly if you so choose, writers would make as much or more money from their work than they make today by being paid indirectly through the publisher.

I don't have a publisher, but I can share my experience as an indie author. My books appear on at least a half-dozen torrent sites, and my coauthor and I decided not to admonish but to try to make new fans. We posted there, thanking them for their interest in our series, and inviting those who enjoyed what they read to consider donating via our Web site whatever they thought the books were worth. To date, we have collected $0.00. So perhaps that world you envision might yet come to pass, but I'm still waiting.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Anti-Targ or Mr. OJ,

Care to attempt to defend Torrenting books after Tracker's experience as an author?

[SilentRoamer]

Hello,

As anyone from the other forum (TSA) can verify - I buy a lot of books. Probably in the region of 20 a month and I buy at least a few dozen brand new books every year at retail.

Any book I already own I will download on torrent - and why not? I have already paid the author for the contents of the book - the paper is not what I paid for, it is the content and only the medium differs when I download.

I have read a few free e-books before I bought the physical copies - mainly due to not being able to get copies in the UK other than on a torrent site. I have even bought books off the back of seeing a book torrent for something I didn't know was released.

I accept I am not the norm, most people I know who torrent books download thousands of books they never intend to read and cause almost no harm because they wouldn't be buying/reading physical copies anyway.

TrackerNeil - I completely see where you are coming from, at the end of the day this is your work and you deserve to be rewarded anytime someone decides to read your work. How do you feel on the medium? Does it bother you if people bought a physical copy and then downloaded an e-torrent for convenience? After all I would not pay once for a DVD and then again to have a copy of this on my home computer?

Just some thoughts.

[TrackerNeil]

TrackerNeil - I completely see where you are coming from, at the end of the day this is your work and you deserve to be rewarded anytime someone decides to read your work. How do you feel on the medium? Does it bother you if people bought a physical copy and then downloaded an e-torrent for convenience? After all I would not pay once for a DVD and then again to have a copy of this on my home computer?

No, not really, although I myself don't share your view in this particular matter. For example, when I purchased my copy of Beauty and the Beat, way, way back in 1981, I did not expect that purchase gave me rights to all forms of that record in perpetuity. I later bought the cassette, then the CD, because I paid for a record and got one. When I see a movie in a theater I don't feel entitled to then grab it via torrent. I paid for one viewing, I got one viewing.

That being said, in paying for a copy of a book you are in my view doing the right thing (and more than many) and for that I thank you.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

SR,

Why do you upload to a torrent site where others can download? My problem is the people who've never paid a dime for the work not compensating the author.

[Larry of the Lawn]

Anti-Targ (Mr. OJ),

Care to attempt to defend Torrenting books after Tracker's experience as an author?

Mr Oj is also the Anti-Targ?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

larry the,

No, sorry, he is a frequent defender of piracy. I've edited to correct the confusing statement.

[Larry of the Lawn]

Gotcha, but am now disappointed. Was hoping he was one boarder with split / alt personalities.

[SilentRoamer]

No, not really, although I myself don't share your view in this particular matter. For example, when I purchased my copy of Beauty and the Beat, way, way back in 1981, I did not expect that purchase gave me rights to all forms of that record in perpetuity. I later bought the cassette, then the CD, because I paid for a record and got one. When I see a movie in a theater I don't feel entitled to then grab it via torrent. I paid for one viewing, I got one viewing.

That being said, in paying for a copy of a book you are in my view doing the right thing (and more than many) and for that I thank you.

Personally, when you bought the vinyl, you owned the content on that vinyl, you can then transfer this by any method to the other media (Cassette and CD if you please) however the quality would be greatly affected. So for me, you go buy a blank CD and then transfer the contents from one form of media to the other. I think this is directly analogous and can see how our opinions vary. With regards to the cinema, you are not just paying for the content of the film, you are paying for the experience, for the surround sound, for the smell of popcorn and the annoying sod munching it in the seat behind - which to me is not analogous.

Interestingly - and I have said this before on another thread, the opinions seem to differ between generations a little.

SR,

Why do you upload to a torrent site where others can download? My problem is the people who've never paid a dime for the work not compensating the author.

Ultimately because I believe in the free distribution of information and data and have a stringent hope the the goodwill of readers will prevail - I can see firsthand how this "war" on piracy is doomed to fail. Ultimately I think the losses in revenues are countered by the gains in popularity and exposure - as an example TWD and GoT are two of the most pirated shows of all time, neither seems to be struggling with regards to viewing figures and additional sales.

I can see how my opinion may anger some I just think the damage to the industry is overstated by precisely those making the most money (not looking at you here TrackerNeil - looking at the publishers).

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

SR,

So, when you buy Tracker's eBook you own the ideas Tracker has created and written in his book and should be free to give his book to as many people as you care to without regard to his effort and time in creating the work you are copying and giving away for free? That is really your position to authors? They can sell one copy and should be satisfied with that one sale?

[Eponine]

I don't really see the argument that you get to read the entire book, then decide how much you like it, then buy it. Don't most ebooks have free sample chapters? Sometimes as much as 10% of the entire book? And if you go through Amazon, you can return ebooks if you do it in a certain time period. I've returned ebooks that I've started reading before - because I stupidly didn't just get a sample first, being convinced that I'd like something that it turned out I hated. (I'd also return an outfit that I discovered didn't fit comfortably even if I'd already worn it a few times, as long as I hadn't stained it). It would be pretty weird to not know your tastes so much that you bought scores of books, read them and didn't want to pay for them, and got a refund for them, but it seems like since this is a thing that can be done, saying that you must sample via torrent is a pretty bad excuse.

OTOH, my library has ebooks, as I believe many do, and I feel zero guilt about reading those books without paying for them, even though I believe that the end result is pretty much the same as if I'd just torrented it (I don't think that authors are paid per check-out, right?), and the idea that there are moral routes to read things for free vs. immoral thievery seems largely based on societal niceties in this case, rather than in any real difference in outcome.

[SilentRoamer]

SR,

So, when you buy Tracker's eBook you own the ideas Tracker has created and written in his book and should be free to give his book to as many people as you care to without regard to his effort and time in creating the work you are copying and giving away for free? That is really your position to authors? They can sell one copy and should be satisfied with that one sale?

I am not giving away his work for free - other people are choosing to download it and not pay for it - this is their decision. As I stated up thread, I would pay for it. Now if i printed copies and started handing them out then that would be valid criticism!

Let me be clear - I only download torrents on the following conditions: I already own a physical copy of the book or I will be buying a physical copy of the book in the near future (unable to get it in the UK).

Now because my behavior enables other people to behave in a fashion I (and you reading into your language) disagree with, then should I be held responsible? After all I do not click their download button for them and lets be clear - an additional seed on the torrent is not really enabling anything that wasn't already available.

Please also let me clarify - I do not own, nor have I ever read an ebook that I do not already own a physical copy of or that I was not planning on purchasing a physical copy as soon as available.

I will provide an example: After reading some reviews for Ann Leckies Ancillary Justice I decided to try this author - so I went to my local Waterstones and bought the book for full price, I then downloaded the e-book after reading the physical copy as I wanted to do some brief analysis on gender exploration within the novel, should I really have paid again? Lets be reasonable, I would have never downloaded the second copy of the book if it was not free, which would have meant less analysis and less discussion on online forums/with friends and accordingly less exposure.

I probably have over a thousand physical books and will continue buying new/used books until my library is complete - authors whom I love I will buy all of their collected works.

Sir Scot - glad we can engage on a sensible level with this discussion rather than resorting to any emotive and inflammatory responsiveness.

I don't really see the argument that you get to read the entire book, then decide how much you like it, then buy it. Don't most ebooks have free sample chapters? Sometimes as much as 10% of the entire book? And if you go through Amazon, you can return ebooks if you do it in a certain time period.

Yeah I never understood this, if I am going to try a new author I at least want to financially reward them for their efforts.

I have no problem downloading from authors I know well - as I can guarantee I have personally paid towards their works - in fact there are quite a few authors where I have their entire collected works which were all bought at full RRP.