Quote:
Originally Posted by Worldwalker
Why should people buying a used book give money to the author? He already got paid once!
If I buy a used car, I don't send money off to Detroit. If I buy a used bookshelf, I don't hunt up the original manufacturer and send them a check. Why should I pay the author again for his book and not the manufacturer of the shelf I put it on or the car I brought it home in?
Once you sell something, whether it's a car or a bookshelf or a book, you've sold it; there's no obligation on anyone's part to pay you again every time it changes hands.
The same is true of lending; if you borrow my car, you don't have to pay the manufacturer, either. I can even rent out my car without having to pay anyone off.
The idea of paying every time you read a book, whether it's bought, borrowed, used, whatever, is another step closer to "one book, one set of eyes, one time" which is, in turn, another step in the decline of reading.
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Exactly. It's the DIVX format all over again, practically. This is what all industries want - to be paid every time anyone uses their media, each time. DIVX tried this (basically pay per view DVD format for those unaware of it...google it).
If one-book-one-person was substantially cheaper (say half or a third the price) of a normal book...maybe it could make some kind of sense (maybe).
But one-book-one-person + DRM-locked to single device + full p-book MSRP is ludicrous.
This kind of thing will do to the book industry what it did to the music industry. But I actually care about the book industry
Donating is a nice idea. I'd rather be able to buy a DRM-free book on an actual free market (no agency price fixing) though. But that's not going to happen any time soon.