Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase
Then why are we even worried about copyright and the Price Fix 5? Who needs them? Let them put outrageous prices on their ebooks and wrap them up tight in DRM so that nobody can afford them or actually open up a file.
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You are arguing from the false premise that the only reason someone would care about copyright, DRM, price-fixing, etc, is because they believe the outcome of those issues matter to their everyday life.
For me, personally, I almost never buy new books. Not because I'm an ARGH! PIRATE! but because (a) I utilize the FLoP heavily and (b) I'm a hobbyist reviewer that already has more ARCs than I can count waiting to be read. Literally, I get something like 20+ new books a month from NetGalley, Vine, new authors looking for a review, etc.
So, I have no
monetary investment in this argument. Price all the new Stephen King eBooks at $500 a pop - it won't affect my wallet.
But - and here's why your argument is based in a false premise - I still care about DRM, price-fixing, copyright nuances, etc. because I care about the issue for intellectual reasons.
It's interesting that you assume that everyone is motivated solely by financial reasons. I mentioned this earlier and pointed out a valid example of someone spending time and money to create something of value (a blog) without hope of comparable monetary rewards in the hopes that you might have your horizons broadened and see that lots of people are motivated by a variety of things.
If I recall correctly, you sneered that a blog was not a particularly good example of valuable content being created for free. So there's that. (And I do apologize if I read your post wrong.)
TL;DR version: People can care about price-fixing AND also believe that there's comparable-quality books available for free on Smashwords. The two opinions are not mutually exclusive. And not everyone who cares about an issue is affected by that issue personally.