The real reason that the music industry came around to the idea of downloads wasn’t because they had a startling insight into the future, or even because Apple forced the issue by building a clever ecosystem around the iPod (it didn’t launch the iTunes store until 2003). It was because customers were choosing to pirate instead.
To put it less glibly, the publishing industry isn’t being forced to confront a radical shift in consumer behaviour caused by technology, because that scenario just is not happening. Customers aren’t forcing the issue by choosing to abandon books and read pirated text instead. And this means the problem isn’t there to be confronted.
Oh, yes, there are problems. The publishing industry is having trouble. People aren’t buying books. Sales are down. Websites, supermarkets and megabookstores are taking over from smaller retailers and throttling the market.
But unlike the music business - who saw those lost customers head straight to Napster, Kazaa or Gnutella - the average book reader isn’t turning to legally dubious sources for their novels, or meeting up with book dealers on street corners to pick up copies of the latest bestseller.
http://www.psfk.com/2009/02/kindles-growth-hampered-by-lack-of-pirates.html
Tags: piracy