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I would rather see my books get pirated than this

janefriedman.com

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Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#301

Post by lathiat »

mcphage wrote: post #213
lathiat wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason is that Apple specifically requires all digital only purchases to only use in-app payment and must give Apple 30%. You are not allowed to process digital purchases through an app with your own payment system. You also can’t tell people that or link them to the website. This does not apply to physical goods. Which is why all the apps you mentioned are fine. This is the same issue that has been talked about…

> The reason is that Apple specifically requires all digital only purchases to only use in-app payment and must give Apple 30%. You are not allowed to process digital purchases through an app with your own payment system. You also can’t tell people that or link them to the website. > This does not apply to physical goods. I don't really get this division other than "it's what Apple could get away with". As far as the…

I have always thought the division is to basically protect Apple's cut of the revenue for "App Sales". Not, strictly speaking, because they want to take 30% of every possible purchase or service -- though I am sure they would be happy with that and do desire that to some extent. However more and more every year sales of an "app" become smaller and smaller and everything is a subscription - so it seems this thought is rapidly if not already outdated.

The world we now live in is that all "apps and programs" can be either a one-off purchase like a physical good or a subscription. That subscription might be for the "app" or it may be packaged as a subscription to a "service" that the app is facilitating (the line between the two is very blurry). Additionally, all digital goods like books, music and movies may also be a one-off purchase or a "subscription" like audible, apple music, etc.

The line between all of those is blurry such that, any set of rules you write leaves it open to convert "app sales" to "services/subscriptions" or even to bundle access to your app or it's content as "digital goods" to avoid that 30% cut. People would (and do) switch their sales model to then avoid that cut.

I don't have a solution and I don't think Apple or the open webs way is specifically better in every aspect, but I do think it's interesting to think about the problem space.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#302

Post by hnben »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #298
chii wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Delightful experience. compare this with the piracy option: search for torrent or download link, click, wait for download to finish. Upload to device. Read and enjoy.

> Upload to device. Compared to a WisperNet download, that's actually a bit of a faff. Don't get me wrong, I use a hacked Kobo, but getting the books on the thing requires a computer and either to use a micro-USB cable or faffing about with a fileshare and WebDAV. Kindle: attach book to Kindle email address, send.

> Kindle: attach book to Kindle email address, send.

I like to image, that jeff bezos dies a little inside whenever I do this.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#304

Post by okasaki »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #298
chii wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Delightful experience. compare this with the piracy option: search for torrent or download link, click, wait for download to finish. Upload to device. Read and enjoy.

> Upload to device. Compared to a WisperNet download, that's actually a bit of a faff. Don't get me wrong, I use a hacked Kobo, but getting the books on the thing requires a computer and either to use a micro-USB cable or faffing about with a fileshare and WebDAV. Kindle: attach book to Kindle email address, send.

Does the kindle have a web browser? If so you can just go directly to libgen and download books.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#305

Post by [deleted] »

VincentEvans wrote: post #128

Let me tell you how to buy a kindle book for my kid’s Kindle that is connected via a child account in “Amazon Household” to my Amazon account. (This opening sentence already signals how the rest of this will go). A child’s account can’t buy books - you have to do it for them. 1. I open Amazon app on my iphone and find the book - “This app does not support purchasing of this content”. 2. I open Kindle app on my iphone…

[deleted]

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#307

Post by auggierose »

VincentEvans wrote: post #128

Let me tell you how to buy a kindle book for my kid’s Kindle that is connected via a child account in “Amazon Household” to my Amazon account. (This opening sentence already signals how the rest of this will go). A child’s account can’t buy books - you have to do it for them. 1. I open Amazon app on my iphone and find the book - “This app does not support purchasing of this content”. 2. I open Kindle app on my iphone…

That's unfortunate, but has nothing to do with the post.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#308

Post by ferbivore »

sam0x17 wrote: post #240
NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do the ends justify the means, matey? Have you considered accessing freely-licensed content instead, and supporting authors who believe in the freedom movement, such as Creative Commons? How would you feel, if you were an author, and people openly advocated piracy, such that you were deprived of sales, and earning an honest living?

> How would you feel, if you were an author, and people openly advocated piracy, such that you were deprived of sales, and earning an honest living? The vast majority of reputable studies on software/music/games piracy have found that piracy boosts sales, and significantly. This is why you seldom see these studies, because the powers that be don't want you to know that. A few breakout songs in the early 00s wouldn't…

Which studies? The closest thing I can find is the inconclusive EC study that was misreported as "piracy boosts sales". I could see that being true in some cases, but for games and music?

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#309

Post by mrweasel »

opportune wrote: post #66
nomat wrote: post #44

I think this is the future of computers for people. they will open their phone and say "hey siri get this book or computer or car" and the browser will show them a bunch of made up products generated by an AI and they'll get the product drop shipped from china and it'll be a shitty counterfeit just like the $5 256GB USB drives. But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be ge…

Yeah, until someone creates a website that just ships the products they say they have, and people type in the URL for the site directly and shop there? If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers who recognize the tremendous amount of value they can capture by not scamming people.

> If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers

That slide has already started. I can't buy stuff on Amazon anymore, because I don't trust the quality or that I'm not scammed. Unless I trust the author I'd question buying self published books. There's a number of Chinese website, like Wish, that I don't understand. Why bother shipping an item to a customer if you're running a scam? People order dress and get a plastic Christmas tree... Why even bother sending the tree? Why produce shitty products that break after first use, why not just straight up rob people, seem more genuine and with less environmental impact.

There are whole categories of products that can not longer be bought online and an even larger category that can only be purchased from trusted companies.

The level of scams have reached new heights in the past year and unless we do something to address "A.I." generated content the internet will drown in useless nonsense.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#310

Post by realusername »

vbezhenar wrote: post #107
citizenpaul wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we will see the pendulum swing back. Yahoo lost to google because they were a manually curated search engine and could not keep up with google indexing and search. Now that all search is SEO gamed garbagebwe are going to see a new curated search engine rise in market share again

I'm pretty sure that Google uses human adjustments for their search results.

Knowing how Google is allergic to anything human in their product loop and obsessed with automation at all costs, I doubt they make a difference.
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