Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
There's no reason we have to continue this archaic practice of purchasing before use in the digital era.
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Archaic?? The same practice that's in use all over the world today? The same practice that's stood societies in good stead for, oh,
5,000 years, and yet
has been updated to the electronic age, where you can easily pay for something before you get it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
The internet levy would allow people access to all texts at no charge (the charge would be the levy, or access fee)
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The Internet levy would, among other things, destroy the incentive to create great work. The Internet levy doesn't take into account a runaway hit. Nor does it take into account the author who isn't able to push a single copy. Worse, it's all, by design, routed through the government, and penalizes people who don't buy e-books. It also forces those who don't like certain works to pay for them anyway.
Frankly, you'd have to work pretty hard to come up with a
worse idea.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
I think before a text gets access to the levy kitty, the text would have to pass a peer review process. That is where I think the random pool of people can come in, To determine if a text is worthy.
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Welcome to the new censorship, Internet-style.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
The network should be able to determine how popular something is, number of downloads, time spent listening/reading.
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Wait. What?! I thought this whole monstrous idea was about
freedom. Why would I give anyone -- let alone a government capable of imposing levies -- the power to see how long I've spent reading or listening to a work? And what's that supposed to be measuring, anyway? Just because I spent a long time reading a book, it doesn't mean the book was any good.
Why all this effort to create a more complicated system, just to avoid paying for things directly?