Quote:
Originally Posted by nekokami
Sorry for the delay. Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. And if you think about it, it's because I do believe in the idea of intellectual property that I feel that way. I've paid for the intellectual property (as well as the formatting effort, which also has value) and I may have paid for some physical production as well (if I bought a p-book), but that's separate. The point is, by buying the book in any format, I feel I've bought a license to use that IP. Not to re-distribute it, but to use it myself.
Now, if I paid for an ebook, and I want to have a nice hardcover version made, I would naturally expect to have to pay a printer/bookbinder to make a copy. That might also involve some nice typesetting, which I'd also have to pay for. If I wanted illustrations, I'd have to pay the illustrator, etc. But I've already paid for the IP of the book content itself, so I don't think I should have to pay that again, so long as I'm not distributing the copy.
Do you at least see where I'm coming from on this?
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Yes, I do (I know... finally!). The only thing is, as sensible as the concept is, it is not
practical in the real world (which is why it took me so long to understand).
If you bought one version of a book, you are not automatically granted a licence to purchase another format at a reduced price... not that it's impossible, you could issue coupons with every book or something, it's just that publishers won't do that, in order to make money. So you know you can't go to a store and say, "I own the e-book, so sell me the hardcover at $1.00."
Touching on the morality issue, this is one case where morality clearly takes a back seat to capitalism, and tries to forget it's even in the car.