Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal
So you see nothing immoral in tricking people?
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No one is getting "tricked."
Works in the public domain are libris, which does not require they also be gratis. And no one is legally or morally required to sell you something at the lowest possible price.
Whoever sets a price has no legal or ethical requirement to index the price to their costs. If it costs Movado $250 to manufacture and market that watch, and they sell it to Tournado for $500 wholesale, and Tournado sells it to you for $1000, there's nothing wrong with that. This is how retail works.
Similarly, there is absolutely nothing legally or ethically wrong with profiting off of public domain works. Publishers and retailers have done this for years. Barnes and Noble put out "classic literature" (read: public domain books) for years. The paper probably cost them $1 or $2, they were publishing it themselves, so if they charged $10 they were making a profit. Is
that immoral? Is that a "trick?" Is it immoral if someone else sells that same exact book for $7 or $8?
Compare the following scenarios.
• Barnes & Noble prints a paperback version of
Pride and Prejudice with no editing and no additional material. They sell it for $10, and from this capture $7 in profit.
• Mobipocket sells an ebook version of
Pride and Prejudice with basic formatting, no additional material and no DRM. They charge $7 for it, and that's all profit.
Is Mobipocket acting immorally, while B&N is not? After all, both are making the exact same profits off of the PD book.
If you say "yes," then you're having an emotional reaction to the concept of "free (
gratis) ebooks." Because really, there is absolutely no difference whatsoever in "earning $7 in profit from a PD book" and "earning $7 in profit from a PD book."