Scott Douglas has a kind of confusing post on the impact of file sharing on novelists, specifically w/rt ebooks on iTunes.
He starts out talking about author royalties. Authors are definitely having difficulty with royalties on the Kindle, because Amazon demands absurdly discounted rates. Authors were already getting paid crap for physical books getting sold through Amazon, the Kindle is even worse. Unfortunately, I don’t have any numbers, but I’m reasonably sure that Apple’s 30% cut from an “application” (ebook) sale is a lot less than the combined effects of Amazon’s royalties and price demands.
Then Douglas talks about the effects of piracy on authors. Is there a piracy problem with iTunes that I wasn’t aware of? Fairplay has been “cracked” a few times, but in each instance Apple has been quick to patch the hole and force a point release upgrade of their software. Music available on the peer-to-peer networks is ripped from CDs, not stolen off iTunes. As for applications, while it is true that one can jump through some crazy hoops to “jailbreak” their iPhone, maintaining that “broken” phone is practically a part-time job. It’s an activity for a crowd of isolated weirdos and I’m confident that Apple isn’t losing a penny from them.
It’s ironic, given Jobs’ public letter deriding DRM, but Apple Fairplay has worked pretty well. Authors face plenty of challenges — most notably getting new readers, and getting stodgy publishers to embrace the digital future — but piracy is not on the list at all.
