Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal
Selling an unchanged e-text is like bottling up the atmosphere and selling it. Fraud, plain and simple.
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I think what is really bugging some is that people who do sell unchanged e-text might be charging some sucker more than the "convenience charge" amount.
So the real problem is an information deficit on the part of the buyer, which is not rectified by the seller. This is a classic problem in any buyer/seller transaction, and there are some circumstances in which the seller is obliged to reveal defects in his product. I'm not sure that the e-text being available somewhere else for free is covered by the term "defect," though.
Maybe one answer is for Amazon to require that the sellers of PD works identify the work as being within the PD, and include a statement of the source of the e-text, all of which will be (1) contained at the beginning of the ebook and (2) incorporated into the description on the Amazon page.
I believe that Amazon is taking a different approach, though, and is weeding out PD books from its offerings. Maybe it is just limiting the number of "different" versions of PD books.