[Nick_Djinn]

I cant respond to everyone all at once.

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

A critical point to note is that there already are lots of free ebooks available, many of which are high quality (and very popular) notably public domain books. It's unclear whether this beneficial public service has made any sort of dent in piracy rates.

If its unclear, then its not an argument for or against. Also, the current system we have with e-books at the public library is unsatisfactory. Checking out books is a nuisance, and ebooks are usually CHECKED OUT!!! WTF? How can an ebook be checked out? They get one copy, and you have to return your "ebook" before somebody else can have it on their reader? Are you F-ing kidding me?.....Think maybe that is why its not a preferred alternative to piracy? Because its faster and easier to pirate, and once its downloaded you KNOW its going to be there?

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

For general interest books, the paper costs are only around 15% of the total costs. Basically, retailers and publishers have spent the last decade squeezing those costs as much as possible in order to increase their profit margins. Things like author's advances, editorial costs, marketing and other overhead make up most of the costs these days. (As a published author, go ahead and ask your publisher for a breakdown of the costs....)

%15 is 15%. The other factor is the shipping, and the number of middle men. The Publisher, the distributor, the corporate distributor, the regional corporate distributor, the store, then the overhead for the storefront and all the employees......Sure, it produces 'jobs', but are needless jobs the answer? We should be finding ways to become more competitive in production again, not become a society of paper shufflers who dig holes just to fill them up.

Anyway, tangible books are very satisfying and people will still buy them, but there is PLENTY justification for reducing the cost of ebooks, at the 15% production costs is just where the added costs BEGIN. There is no way it costs as much to upload an ebook as it costs to maintain a storefront stocked with tangible books by the metric ton. Its not just a 15% difference in overhead.

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

This also means the creation of a very expensive new entitlement, in an era where every federal and state government is slashing costs.

Its not that expensive. Also, an argument could be made that it saves space and arguably money for the same reasons stated above. Even if it did cost a bit more, it should be fairly cheap as programs go. Its military spending that is bankrupting us. Its our foreign bases all around the world. Its a global empire, like the biblical references to 'mystery babylon' who had ports in every nation on earth. Its excessive. Library and cultural enrichment makes up like 1.5% of the budget. Of course military spending is not 'discretionary' or up for debate, so they inflate those numbers, but its still small.

The library isnt going to bankrupt up, and it would likely cost less than parks or other programs to help educate children.

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

It also essentially means turning over content decisions to government agencies.

Ridiculous. We already have a public library system where you can already download e-readers. It has not expanded the scope of government or turned us into Communist China.

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

There is also a limited market for readers; in the US it's around 65 million, or 1/5 of the US population.

That seems like a lot of people to me....Of course if it was only a minority then it would cost even less. In the future electronic formats in general might become the norm for most schools, since its cheaper than producing physical textbooks...and not just %15 cheaper either.