MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - The Danger of E-books by RMS

jocampo · 06-09-2011, 04:13 PM

I don't think that ebooks should be sold or downloaded for free. At least, not all of them.

If you want to read a classic, that's different but there are some kind of books, like the type I read (IT books) that requires a lot of research and hard work. If the author or company start selling those for free, they will have to "trust" or wait for possible purchases in order to receive some type of income. In the meantime ... what? ...

Now, I can be wrong, but I think that here in USA, you get some cash depending of the numbers of books you sold. Income will be secure this way because once the copy is sold, some money is being received. There are exceptions of course, like novels. I don't think Garcia Marquez has to wait in order to receive some initial payment for his work, instead the publisher provides some cash I think, regardless of the amount of books the author will sell or not.

I remember I took a Veritas Cluster course about 7 months ago. I received 4 books as part of the training, which of course was paid by the company I work for. The books are step by step instructions and technical manuals for the product. The cost? about 5k total those 4 books! ;-) ... Will the company sell those for free or make them available online without paying? I don't think so. The books are selling a service. Making it widely available allows others to take advantage of the information, without paying a penny. That's bad in terms of business.

06-09-2011, 04:13 PM	#44
jocampo Layback feline Posts: 3,034 Karma: 6980745 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: USA Device: Oasis 2nd gen, Sony DPTS1, iPad Pro 10.5"	I don't think that ebooks should be sold or downloaded for free. At least, not all of them. If you want to read a classic, that's different but there are some kind of books, like the type I read (IT books) that requires a lot of research and hard work. If the author or company start selling those for free, they will have to "trust" or wait for possible purchases in order to receive some type of income. In the meantime ... what? ... Now, I can be wrong, but I think that here in USA, you get some cash depending of the numbers of books you sold. Income will be secure this way because once the copy is sold, some money is being received. There are exceptions of course, like novels. I don't think Garcia Marquez has to wait in order to receive some initial payment for his work, instead the publisher provides some cash I think, regardless of the amount of books the author will sell or not. I remember I took a Veritas Cluster course about 7 months ago. I received 4 books as part of the training, which of course was paid by the company I work for. The books are step by step instructions and technical manuals for the product. The cost? about 5k total those 4 books! ;-) ... Will the company sell those for free or make them available online without paying? I don't think so. The books are selling a service. Making it widely available allows others to take advantage of the information, without paying a penny. That's bad in terms of business.