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Originally Posted by abookreader
I think artists should get to make those decisions for themselves.
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Me too! Nobody should be forced to make an agreement with the public library. It should be a choice for the author if their patent is still valid.
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Originally Posted by abookreader
If they want to sign a contract with Penguin where in exchange for the large percent of the sales price Penguin handles production and distribution -- then that is the choice of the author.
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I agree with the letter of your statement, but disagree with the implication. Of course each individual should have full control over their own actions, but just because somebody 'consents' to an agreement does not mean that its free from exploitation. On the contrary, there are many voluntary agreements in a so called 'free market' that are full of exploitation and usury, and people only 'consent' because a monopoly over an industry makes it preferably to being shut out. Preferable < ideal.
Also, just because an author agreed to sell to a publishing company does not change the fact that you are handing the money to the publishing company and NOT to the artist who produced the material. You claim that without paying $17 to Amazon that there would be no incentive for writers to produce books for us, but nothing could be farther from the truth.
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Originally Posted by abookreader
How in the world will you force everybody to adapt it?
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I wont, and dont put words in my mouth. If you dont want to receive money from the public library system you dont have to. You only have to pay taxes to gain the benefits of society, like roads, and the benefit of living in a place where most people can speak fluently and understand written instructions. We provide free books to students in grade school all the time, paid for with taxes.
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Originally Posted by abookreader
Not inhuman mythical greedy "corporations."
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Yes. Corporations have all the rights of a flesh and blood human being now. Pretty soon they will be able to vote.
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Originally Posted by abookreader
But the good news is that so far most book buyers seem to be willing to pay a reasonable price for content.
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Source? Do you have any real data that shows this definitively? Of course books are still popular, but can you prove that more people are paying $17 for the content you can read in a $5.99 paperback than are downloading content for free from ThePirateBay.org? Of course you need to download a bittorrent client, like Bitspirit first, then it will open the torrent automatically when you download it in the link.