Fear of piracy is the reason that most chess book publishers will not follow Everyman Chess' model of releasing ebooks. The whole book publishing model is archaic and needlessly redundant when you think about it. Writers spend hours putting games into Chessbase. Publishers then spend hours converting the chessbase files into hard paper. Buyers then spend hours entering the games on the hard paper back into chessbase as they study them and analyse them. Isn't this madness?
I don't approve of piracy. I don't use torrent and I don't share my digital chess materials with others who have not bought them. However, I will not judge anyone else harshly since when I was a kid, my only chess books were ones I photocopied.
Stigma wrote on 12/22/09 at 14:36:25:
Copy protection won't stop the most determined and knowledgeable thiefs, but it should deter at least some would-be filesharers.
Yes, enforcement is only one part of the picture. Sellers have to find creative ways to make people more likely to buy their product instead of stealing it. For example, once upon a time, I had to wait months to see a new US movie on the big screen. You can be sure that long before that, pirated copies were available on video. The US movie industry moved in the direction of simultaneous world wide releases largely to combat piracy. Now I can go see
Avator right now in my local cinema whereas a few years ago, it would probably have not been released until March next year! So i am less likely to rent that pirated copy.
I think Chessbase recognises this. For instance, the downloadable Chessbase Light Premium now has almost all of the feature of the full verson of Chessbase full edition. Less incentive for piracy. They have to look for other creative ways with their other products to make buyers more likely to buy them than to steal them.
GMTonyKosten wrote on 12/22/09 at 13:10:12:
I wonder if they have been forced to up the price because so many people thieve it? So the honest people have to pay more because of the dishonest ones?
Not necessarily. There is a controversial argument that piracy had a positive effect on legal sales in the music industry for instance.