Lower prices can help combat book piracy

It is common knowledge that one can save money when the prices of goods are lower. For this reason, many people resort to pirated copies of lower quality books, movies and music. However, if the real reason is price, lower book prices for legal content can increase sales. A study conducted by researchers shows that lowering the original book price significantly reduces indirect visits to piracy sites.

Although everyone knows that using and downloading pirated content is illegal, many still do it without hesitation. Pirated versions of original works are very complicated and of inferior quality. The researchers who conducted a study concluded that the price is the main reason why millions of people around the world have no problem using pirated content. Since the prices of these works are low, people compromise on the quality of the content.

These researchers come from Georgia Tech, Chapman University and Carnegie Mellon University. Their main goal was to find out what would happen if prices for legal content were lowered and whether this would affect piracy. Many authors believe that piracy is good for business because people would notice the difference in quality. However, for these researchers, there is no easy way to ask authors to lower the prices of their works.

Fortunately, new EU tax rules have enabled a natural experiment that facilitates this research. The European Union passed a new rule in 2018 that allows member states to apply a reduced VAT rate on e-books, bringing them into a similar range in price to print books. Following this change, many countries agreed in 2019, and Ireland saw a 14% drop in e-book prices.

The researchers found this an opportune moment and took advantage of it to experiment with their idea. They began to compare the pirated websites used for publishing in Ireland with those of other EU countries. In these countries, book prices remained unchanged. The idea that cheaper prices are important for buyers was actually a reality. Although a 14% drop in prices seemed insignificant, the results were visible.

According to MUSO’s data, direct visits to pirated websites were not affected. This is because these visitors know the websites and search for them directly on Google, so the drop in the price of legal content means little to them. MUSO also collected data on indirect traffic and found that the number of visits from these people dropped by 27%.

As more and more people realize the lower prices of e-books, their preference to buy from pirated websites is changing. This research found that indirect visitors compare legal and pirated prices and choose the best option.

Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with over 10 years of experience. When she is not writing, she enjoys cooking or spending time with her dog Rain.