Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
No, read some of the early cases and you will find they are mostly full of big publishers whining about copies being sold, not about copies being made.
|
I don't know what cases you mean. Dates are relevant here.
At least in the US, penny newspapers and junk mail both started in 1833. Before than, copying was expensive relative to other costs of publication. Ever since the printing press advances of the early 1830's, book manufacturing costs have been tiny relative to other costs of publication.
My larger point is that you are floating around here at about 100,000 feet, where the triumph of regulated capitalism, and human selfishness, are still open questions. As I have said before, there can be fun in raising such fundamental issues.
But authors are nearer sea level, where lower (or, with piracy, zero) book prices would cause a choice between poverty and churning out potboilers.
Of course authors have always had trouble making money. I recently read a outstanding biography of Pearl Buck, who wrote 70 often mediocre books after producing a great one. Here's a quote:
I must buckle down and make as much money as I can . . . you may see many more potboilers from now on!"
Let's just not make it worse.