Double edged sword
As both a creator and consumer, I'm personally against DRM even on my own works; and I'm all for open standard document formats.
I can understand people wanting to move things from one device to another. I've just moved from Kindle to Kobo myself.
For the most part, it is a market place. If you don't like the price of the apples, then don't buy them. If you don't like the price of my books, then don't buy them. That's what an open market is. The greengrocer prices to withstand a certain number of apples going missing, so piracy must also be accounted for in digital media. (If you condone piracy, then you've got a small part to play in the unit price going up.)
Digital can span the globe, but there are problems; pricing globally when there is so much market value difference locally is not easy. Some people are getting around piracy by only allowing physical copy; but there is someone, somewhere out there, who will buy a physical copy, break the spine and scan it in. Tax, VAT, production qualities (language differences, subtitling, etc. ... some actors have their "opposite number" in other countries who always dub the same actor) can stuff up releases in other territories. It isn't always as straightforward as some people think. Licensing and terms can be different between territories as well, which hampers official release. A heck of a lot of stuff goes on behind the scenes.
We're reliant on a certain degree of honesty, and I think that the majority of people do believe in a fair days pay for a fair days work. However, a chunk of this is relying on people to say, "I'm not paying that... I won't bother." against, "I'm not paying that ... I'll pirate it instead."
And I know this ... as a creator, if there is no value in writing, then why write? There's been more than adequate conversation on that already, from musicians mostly, who have run experiments.
But I'll tell you this ... I anticipate that my earnings from what I write will never break in to four figures in a year ... yet I've contacted the tax man, got my reference numbers and stand ready to pay the appropriate tax on the little that I will earn ... and if I play right by society, I would hope that society would play right by me.
I'm not asking for violins ... I'm just asking for fair treatment. Is that so evil?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
