出版与作家生涯2009eff.org
Doctorow：如何摧毁一本书
Doctorow, How to Destroy the Book
导读
这篇帖子围绕 Doctorow 的演讲《如何摧毁书》，讨论出版业的经济逻辑、DRM 与盗版问题。写作者值得读，因为它把“作品如何抵达读者”摆到台面上：发行关系、定价、获取便利性都会直接影响写作生态和读者行为。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把发行看成“创作者找市场”而非“守门人挑创作者”，主动经营自己的读者渠道，别只等被选中。
- 02
降低读者获取作品的门槛（价格、渠道、格式），便利的正版体验比道德说教更能减少盗版。
- 03
区分“买不起”和“买得起却仍盗版”的读者：后者说明合法购买体验不够好，值得反思自己的分发方式。
- 04
内容供给过剩会带来“逐底竞争”，写作者要想清楚自己不可替代的价值，而不是只拼低价。
HN 评论精选
发行关系应倒转：发行方应竞争服务创作者；便利的正版体验比打击盗版更能转化读者。
出版业需要改变，应该以 Steam 为榜样。现在出版经济完全倒过来了：想把作品分发给大众的创作者，本应在竞争性市场里找发行方；现实却是发行方挑选创作者，把大量它认为不会成功的艺术家过滤掉。这就像货运公司去扶持制造业，只为了有更多货可运。盗版要分两种：买得起和买不起。买不起的人盗版，创作者并没有损失潜在收入，打击这类盗版没有意义。买得起却仍盗版，才说明问题——这说明盗版比合法购买更方便。如果合法购买更方便、更愉快，人们会真的多买吗？Steam 证明会：Reddit 上大量评论说“我已在 Steam 下载，尽管我已有 CD，因为……”
SlyShy查看英文原文
The publishing industry needs to change, and it should take Steam as its example. The way I see it, the economics of publishing are entirely backwards right now. A creative producer, who wishes to distribute their goods to the masses, should look for a distributer in a competitive market. The current system is that the distributer looks for creative producers, and filters out lots of artists that it doesn't think will be successful. This is as absurd as a trucking company looking to nurture manufacturing businesses so it has more things to ship. Let's consider the issue of pirating. It's not a false dichotomy to state there are two kinds of pirates. The kind that can afford the item they are pirating, and the kind that can't. If someone pirates an item because they can't afford it, the producer isn't losing any potential income, because the pirate has none to give regardless. Stamping down on this kind of piracy is pointless. If someone pirates an item they can afford, however, then you've got problems. What this indicates is that someone found pirating to be more convenient than the legal way of buying the item. Would people really buy more items instead of pirating them if it was more convenient and pleasant to buy the item legally? Steam certainly indicates so. Take a look at the thousands of Reddit comments on steam. One of the remarkable themes that emerges from those comments is this kind, "Downloaded this from Steam, even though I already own the CDs, because I didn't feel like looking for them" or "Bought it on Steam after I torrented it". (If you don't believe me, seriously, look for youself. Also note that Reddit users are basically the demographic of people who pirate out of convenience.) What this indicates is that traditional publishing as done in the film, book, or game industries haven't been keeping pace with the consumer's desire for convenience. You can blame an uncompetitive market for that. If creative producers were able to select from a gamut of publishing companies and evaluate cost versus effectiveness of sales, etc., then publishers would be forced to innovate. And also to offer better deals to artists. Of course, the established industry is resistent to change, which is why we are getting all of this DRM. They are approaching the problem of downloading for convenience in exactly the wrong way. Instead of trying to make purchasing games, music, movies, and books more convenient (like Steam has done with games) they are trying to make pirating less convenient. Guess which approach would be more efficient, but would actually take some thought and overhaul of the current system? Amazon is moving in the right direction with the Kindle.
别把 DRM 道德化，先解决价格与可及性；过渡期工具可以务实接受。
DRM 不是主要问题，大多数读者不关心。最终产品应该无 DRM，但从道德高地愤怒无助于解决关键问题。我们需要买得起、高质量的阅读器和方便、低价的书籍。无 DRM 固然好，但如果某些 DRM 能让转型更快，那就接受。Hulu、Steam 都说明 DRM 可以有用并做出有吸引力的产品。也提醒创业者：SaaS 本质上就是 DRM，服务端代码很难被盗版，你不“拥有”Basecamp，只是租用，这没什么不对。
GavinB查看英文原文
DRM isn't the main issue. Most book readers don't know or care about it particularly. Yes, eventually ownership products should be DRM-free, but raging about it from a moralistic standpoint isn't helping with the key issues. We need affordable, high quality readers with convenient, low priced books. DRM-free would be great, but if some DRM lets the transition happen more quickly, then so be it. Hulu, Steam, etc all show that DRM can be useful and create compelling products. I would also remind all web startup founders that the SaaS model is basically DRM. One of the major benefits of server-side code is that it is very hard to pirate. You don't "own" your instance of Basecamp, you just rent it. And there's nothing wrong with that.
读者在意对文件和设备的控制权，授权不清会阻碍他们接受新形式。
我最近买了第一本 PDF 电子书，没有 DRM。作为“书人”，我未来可能考虑买阅读器，前提是版权/许可问题明确，且没人限制我往设备里加或删文件。零售商或出版商不应未经设备/书籍所有者许可就删除或修改阅读器上的书。我个人不会明知有 DRM 还购买，虽然多数消费者没我这么较真。
motters查看英文原文
I just bought my first electronic book recently in PDF format, without any DRM. As a "book person" I might consider getting an ebook reader at some point in the future, provided that the copyright/licensing issues are clarified and nobody is restricting what files I add or remove from the device. Retailers or publishers should not be able to remove or modify books on an ebook reader without the permission of the owner of the device/books. Personally I wouldn't knowingly purchase anything which contained DRM, although I realize that probably most consumers aren't as hardcore on these issues as I am.
内容过剩与低价战让创作者陷入逐底竞争，必须想清楚如何竞争。
又一个稻草人：借书。我反复发现，我借给别人的书、别人借给我的书，最后都没被读。游戏也一样。变化就在你眼前：大作和书都卖得很便宜，消费者大赢。实际结果是所有创意内容生产者都在“逐底竞争”。我最近考虑做独立 Flash/Silverlight 游戏，但如果你花 5 美元就能买到顶级 3A 游戏，你怎么竞争？
pragmatic查看英文原文
Another strawman, lending books. I've found over and over again that a book that I loan to someone, or one that someone loans to me, remains unread. Same with games. The game is changing under your nose. Major titles and books for cheap prices. Consumers win big. The practical result is that all producers of creative content are in a race to zero. I considered building an indy flash/silverlight game recently. But if you can get great AAA games for $5, how on earth can you compete with that.
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