Quote:
|
Here's the problem: Copyright laws. If I buy a book, at best I can hand the book to a friend and say "read this". No big deal. With e-text, I can buy one copy of a text and then email it such that eventually thousands receive it. It's like Napster a few years ago only for literature.
|
Did you know that the concept of copyright didn't exist until the time of Queen Anne in England and literature seems to have got along just fine without it? In the age of manuscripts you just commissioned a copy of a book that either you possessed or someone else was willing to let you borrow. You didn't have to write to the author and ask permission.
Good God, imagine where we'd be now if the ancients had DRMed all their text.