New Orphan Works Directive

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

I'm not aware of authors who now work like this. Any names?

Even if it is working for a few authors, that doesn't mean it would work as a commonplace method of author payment. I might be marginally generous enough to make a contribution to a seemingly deserving software or book author once every year or two, but I'm not about to do it several times a month.

However, I don't want to come down too hard on you. I believe you are genuinely trying to come up with workable ways to compensate authors in a world without DRM and in which piracy is risk-free. At least you don't try to claim that if publishers ignore piracy, lower their prices, and take away DRM, authors can then live off of voluntarily paid low prices.

Are you telling me you pirate most of your texts? Or do you choose not to read something without paying for it first?

Publishers won't have to ignore piracy or lower prices because nothing will be sold, therefore nothing will be able to be pirated. There would also be no need for DRM. Authors would have to live off of volunteered donations but,

I assume you browse the app store on your mobile device? A large portion of those texts are ad supported. I use the universal meaning of the word text, to include all of creation. But even the games contain words.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

Are you telling me you pirate most of your texts? Or do you choose not to read something without paying for it first?

This will probably will make for a boring post, but I'll answer your questions.

Almost every book I read, other than public domain, was paid for by our taxes, or by our having paid an out of area library fee. My first choice is an eBook, normally from Overdrive. If not available, I get it from a public library. If not available from a nearby library we are a member of, I may get it by interlibrary loan. I don't like to do that much, because it costs the library. So once or twice a year -- usually for a title never published in the US -- I'll order a used book.

I'm willing to borrow a paper book from friend or family, but I rarely do. Another exception to my always paying for books I read is that I've read maybe two in-copyright books that were temporarily free at amazon.com. The difference between my behavior and piracy is, of course, that the author/publisher was either compensated by Amazon, or allowed the freebee for marketing purposes.

I assume you browse the app store on your mobile device?

The app store? If you are asking whether I (or we if wife Barbara is included) ever buy Kindle active content, we never have. We do not have, or plan to buy, smart phones, except that I have a highly locked down employer-owned BlackBerry they can call me on in an emergency.

Authors would have to live off of volunteered donations . . .

As opposed to a free society in which you can give away your book, or ask for donations, or charge for it -- your choice.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

This will probably will make for a boring post, but I'll answer your questions.

Almost every book I read, other than public domain, was paid for by our taxes, or by our having paid an out of area library fee. My first choice is an eBook, normally from Overdrive. If not available, I get it from a public library. If not available from a nearby library we are a member of, I may get it by interlibrary loan. I don't like to do that much, because it costs the library. So once or twice a year -- usually for a title never published in the US -- I'll order a used book.

I'm willing to borrow a paper book from friend or family, but I rarely do. Another exception to my always paying for books I read is that I've read maybe two in-copyright books that were temporarily free at amazon.com. The difference between my behavior and piracy is, of course, that the author/publisher was either compensated by Amazon, or allowed the freebee for marketing purposes.


The app store? If you are asking whether I (or we if wife Barbara is included) ever buy Kindle active content, we never have. We do not have, or plan to buy, smart phones, except that I have a highly locked down employer-owned BlackBerry they can call me on in an emergency.


As opposed to a free society in which you can give away your book, or ask for donations, or charge for it -- your choice.

You must understand that the library pays a fee for those books you borrow but it is quite possible that they have been borrowed a hundred times before they get to you. Has the author been compensated enough for these multiple borrows? Or are we just to assume that if a book is borrowed from the library that the author has been compensated justly?

Seriously though if you want to get down to basics, isn't everything paid for by the tax system? Subsidies for corn that the author eats to give her the energy to write and all that. It's all connected as we know but fail to really understand sometimes...

The kindle is an app delivery device, whether or not those apps are active doesn't really matter.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by teh603

If the EU just decided that, it means the US is going to do a release in about three weeks that all orphaned works are to be granted perpetual copyright and become un-distributable.

Cause the US likes to be "better" than the EU, and usually goes about it in the exact wrong way.

You may be right, who knows. I would like it if the US permitted the publication of orphaned books. The real question is what is an orphaned work. I would say something like the work hasn't been in print for a given time period and there has been a good faith effort to find the copyright holder. I'm sure that a process could be put in place that will work 95% of the time. Perhaps a national copyright database or some such thing. I would also say that a fee per sale should be put in escrow for a set amount of time just in case the actual copyright holder actually does appear at a later time.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

You must understand that the library pays a fee for those books you borrow but it is quite possible that they have been borrowed a hundred times before they get to you. Has the author been compensated enough for these multiple borrows?

Authors get paid more money from the affluent who buy their books outright, and less money from those whose funding comes indirectly, such as through sales to libraries. Is it fair for the relatively richer to pay more? I say yes. Has this system compensated authors enough? Probably not, but signaling that piracy is fine, and then relying on alms, or implausible dreams of a new government program in a an era of long-term debt overhang and a highly challenging demographic environment is going to make it worse. Maybe the posters who instead focus on eliminating DRM and lowering eBook prices are even more unrealistic, but I think your plans just won't work.

Will anything work? Not completely, but I think mild discouragement of piracy is the best bet.

As before, I thank you for asking me to reconsider fundamentals.

Seriously though if you want to get down to basics, isn't everything paid for by the tax system?

No. If you want to get down to basics, we have a mixed economy.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

No. If you want to get down to basics, we have a mixed economy.

I am not sure that is the case.

As Carl Sagan used to say, "If you wish to bake an apple pie from scratch/write an ebook from scratch you must first invent the universe."