The novels bought online are much cheaper than those in physical stores. Are they pirated?

I just want to ask, if a book that costs more than 20 yuan in a physical store can be bought online for 12 yuan, and it's even free shipping, is this kind of book pirated?
Some people said that it was the original version, but some people said that there were typos.
But the content is all right, and the posters are free.

Answer 1

Not necessarily. The novels you buy online are much cheaper than those in physical stores. Are they pirated? To determine whether a novel was pirated or not, one had to consider many factors, such as the price of the novel, the copyright status of the novel, and the time of publication of the novel.

If the price of a novel bought online was much lower than that of a physical novel, it might be because the price of an e-book was lower or because the copyright of an e-book was more favorable than that of a physical book. However, the price was only one factor in determining whether the novel was pirated. It also needed to consider whether the copyright of the novel was legal.

If the copyright of the novel was legal, then it might be pirated. However, it was also possible that the author had published it through legal channels and only had a certain discount on the price. Therefore, to determine whether a novel was pirated or not, one needed to consider a number of factors and not just the price.