> I doubt if the real loss in revenue is even substantial.
I am not a fan of DRM. Less because of its restrictions, but more because of its low level of user experience (merely consequence of its restrictions, sure, but still), with publishers not making content available for this or that device, and with lack of smart features like lending/borrowing/transferring material.
That said, and being from Latin America myself (Brazil), as well with connections in Asia (friends), I've heard many stories already that give an idea of thousands of developers that are consuming "paid" content downloaded through torrents/forums/dropboxes/etc, and never made the "honorable" payment.
I am afraid you are underestimating the amount of developers in developing countries that consume books from O'Reilly and other publishers and are not paying at all for that, ultimately damaging investments on new material, both by publishers and authors. It is hardly the case of not being able to afford, but simply a cultural thing.
For any author that thinks their content should be DRM-free and available to anyone, I don't understand why they don't publish on GitHub, and drop a link to their PayPal account for contributions. If they did, my bet would be on repositories with huge traffic (easy to monitor), but low pay-rate.
This is basically the same problem as monetising an open source project on GitHub. I don't know what O'Reilly's take of a 5-20USD eBook was, but I bet you the authors get more than your average Patreon.
Even if you do convince someone to pay (did I read that 1% was a good conversion rate?), how difficult is it to get their money? How many are you going to lose to the PayPal login process? How much money is your payment processor going to take?
While I've got you here (although this looks like a throwaway account), how easy is it for you to make a credit card payment to a US merchant from Brazil? Can you use Patreon? PayPal? Flattr?
I agree that there's a cultural factor in piracy. As for putting up the book on GitHub and a link for donations, that hardly ever works (like you said, "low pay rate"). Most people feel that they ought to pay only when faced with a specific "buy" option. Except for some terrific authors and great works, donationware usually doesn't get much for the author.
I am not a fan of DRM. Less because of its restrictions, but more because of its low level of user experience (merely consequence of its restrictions, sure, but still), with publishers not making content available for this or that device, and with lack of smart features like lending/borrowing/transferring material.
That said, and being from Latin America myself (Brazil), as well with connections in Asia (friends), I've heard many stories already that give an idea of thousands of developers that are consuming "paid" content downloaded through torrents/forums/dropboxes/etc, and never made the "honorable" payment.
I am afraid you are underestimating the amount of developers in developing countries that consume books from O'Reilly and other publishers and are not paying at all for that, ultimately damaging investments on new material, both by publishers and authors. It is hardly the case of not being able to afford, but simply a cultural thing.
For any author that thinks their content should be DRM-free and available to anyone, I don't understand why they don't publish on GitHub, and drop a link to their PayPal account for contributions. If they did, my bet would be on repositories with huge traffic (easy to monitor), but low pay-rate.