Smashwords - What You Like and Don't Like

[crich70]

But the 1st D in DVD stands for Digital doesn't it? The disk itself is a storage medium and that's all as far as I can see as I've yet to see/hear a DVD/CD play itself without a playback device. The actual media provides an interface point where the player and the actual movie/music can interact. Granted common sense and the law don't always match up though.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by crich70

But the 1st D in DVD stands for Digital doesn't it? The disk itself is a storage medium and that's all as far as I can see as I've yet to see/hear a DVD/CD play itself without a playback device. The actual media provides an interface point where the player and the actual movie/music can interact. Granted common sense and the law don't always match up though.

The distinction she was making was between physical goods and services. The mention of the word digital was incidental and not germane, but you have latched on to it, and are dragging it in a bizarre and inappropriate direction.....
I'll attribute it to the lateness of the hour and trust you'll see the error of your ways in the light of day.
Good day, and I hope your hangover is mild.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by ApK

The distinction she was making was between physical goods and services. The mention of the word digital was incidental and not germane, but you have latched on to it, and are dragging it in a bizarre and inappropriate direction.....
I'll attribute it to the lateness of the hour and trust you'll see the error of your ways in the light of day.
Good day, and I hope your hangover is mild.

I don't drink actually. I've never had the habit really and with Type 1 Diabetes it would be a very bad idea anyway. And I did qualify my post by admitting that what would seem to be common sense isn't always what the law says. I wager the argument will last as long as digital media (of any sort) exists. I know what was posted earlier. I was merely pointing out that the DVD/CD disk is the means by which the digital media is distributed. The companies that sell them provide that service. If someone mops your floor for your company they are said to be providing a service but that service deals in a physical manner since your floor is mopped. It's hard to separate one from the other I think with ebooks too. Even though they are selling you only the digital media (or rather the link you need to download it) the actual book file is still stored on physical media. Either without the other won't work. I don't expect the law to change or agree with me though. I know that's a lost cause.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by crich70

I don't drink actually .

You mean you're like this SOBER?!
Kidding. That was always my line when people found out I didn't drink: 'Nope, I'm always like this.'

Anyway, slightly more seriously and back on topic: perhaps some variation of the reasoning you are applying is also the reasoning some of these companies applied when creating their business models, which is why they are different on the tax handling.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by ApK

You mean you're like this SOBER?!
Kidding. That was always my line when people found out I didn't drink: 'Nope, I'm always like this.'

Anyway, slightly more seriously and back on topic: perhaps some variation of the reasoning you are applying is also the reasoning some of these companies applied when creating their business models, which is why they are different on the tax handling.

I wouldn't be surprised. Everyone looks for a loophole that gives them the better end of a deal I think and big companies have the help of expensive lawyers to help them there.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

I've been thinking, and this just occurred to me:

In the US, payments from product consignments don't require 1099s (reported payments), but that refers to merchandise, NOT services.

Digital goods sales usually are handled as a service rather than a product.

Maybe that's it. Note that when I was dealing with BookBaby they had no direct sales as part to their offering (and what they have now is not quite the same thing either, AFAICT). So they only acted as an intermediary for distribution. Although why (re)distribution of digital products should be treated as merchandise while retail sales of the same thing should be a service (if that's what is happening) remains an odd technicality - and suggests than anyone can sidestep the law in this case by simply having one company to act as the distributor and the other to act as the retail outlet.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by gmw

Maybe that's it. Note that when I was dealing with BookBaby they had no direct sales as part to their offering (and what they have now is not quite the same thing either, AFAICT). So they only acted as an intermediary for distribution. Although why (re)distribution of digital products should be treated as merchandise while retail sales of the same thing should be a service (if that's what is happening) remains an odd technicality - and suggests than anyone can sidestep the law in this case by simply having one company to act as the distributor and the other to act as the retail outlet.

I wouldn't be surprised if their sidestepping gets brought up short at some point. This is one of those "not fully tested" areas where not everything has caught up, but it seems that they are getting by on questionable technicalities, especially that what they are actually doing is actually content licensing distribution.

Something else to consider and that some new authors using Bookbaby might run into - even though BB isn't reporting, they make all payments through Paypal. Paypal now (as of last year) reports payments and issues 1099K's to account holders receiving payments (gross, of all types) over certain thresholds (200 transactions & $20K or more). Though few authors are likely to hit the threshold, I believe after a certain amount (I've heard it's around $500 but that could be incorrect), Paypal will request a SSN or other TIN (EIN, ITIN, etc) and will freeze the account if they don't get it.

[ereadingdotcom]

Thank you all for the many useful comments. Draft2Digital is interesting. It seems to me that Smashwords really has an eye toward becoming a publisher, similar to what Richard Curtis did with E-Reads.com. That way, the book develops--in more than one sense--a "permanent" association with the company that is "publishing" it.

When we deploy LaunchWords.com, we will provide--among other services--both distribution and publishing. Publishing will be a different animal altogether, with much more investment on our part that merely providing authors with the platform to convert their books into digital form and then distribute them.

[ereadingdotcom]

Something else to consider and that some new authors using Bookbaby might run into - even though BB isn't reporting, they make all payments through Paypal. Paypal now (as of last year) reports payments and issues 1099K's to account holders receiving payments (gross, of all types) over certain thresholds (200 transactions & $20K or more). Though few authors are likely to hit the threshold, I believe after a certain amount (I've heard it's around $500 but that could be incorrect), Paypal will request a SSN or other TIN (EIN, ITIN, etc) and will freeze the account if they don't get it.[/QUOTE]


Using PayPal is, in our opinion, always fraught with risk. They have a tendency of freezing accounts for a wide variety of reasons; this sounds like just another one.

That said, accountability is necessary, both for the parties processing the payments and the authors.