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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by animosity
I believe it is always morally wrong to steal, overpriced or not. That being said, I believe people would be much more likely to pay for media content if it was more reasonably priced and easily accessible in digital format.
It is frustrating to buy an ebook that cost the same or more than the physical copy. I usually just end up not buying it... and no one wins.
Going back to what BG said about the cost of physical media production.
Media is not really a tangible product to begin with. The tangible product is a delivery system. Books, CDs, DVDs, etc are systems of distribution that allow the exchange of data from the creator to the consumer. The delivery of this data is a small portion of the total cost.
When the delivery system is free/paid to another provider(internet) it is easy for people to forget(willfully or not) that the product is what their eyes see and ears hear.
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Then you are not understanding the actual costs for the delivery system. To deliver an ebook, digital download, or even on demand movie/TV show, there is an infrastructure that has to be built, maintained, and constantly upgraded.
When I worked on the delivery system for Viacom which was 14Pb about 5 years ago with at least 2 redundant backup locations, it was a pretty penny to be spent. Not only do you spend for the hardware, but software to do conversions for multiple formats, connectivity, and some sort of rights and royalty management. One top of that, you still need specialized people who can maintain and operate that infrastructure. These people don't get paid minimum wage like those people who stock bookshelves and man cash registers. Those things cost and have tangible impact to that "deliverable" that you so want.
Take note that most often, a digital asset gets the author a 50% revenue share more often than not, whereas a physical book may only get them maxium 15%.
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