Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal
But in the present system, the patron is the publisher, so how is that any different?
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Not really; the market is the patron, the publishers just decide if they believe something will sell (enough) or not; unpleasant controversy can yank a book of bookshelves, but it needs to be something illegal or really unethical (and sometimes the book in cause is reissued with the issues fixed by some deletions, an acknowledgment, stuff like that).
On the other hand as quite a few recent examples have shown us, offend a powerful interest group and you are yanked off the air, retired from a university and so on, whenever you depend on ads or a patron...