Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Actually, I have been speaking in very straightforward terms, trying to emphasize the fact that a product that an author makes money on should be paid for, whatever its format. The fact that e-books can easily be copied and disseminated by others, thereby creating instances of the product independent of the author's efforts, does not change this one fact (yes, I personally consider this a fact). And finally, that copyright law should be written/rewritten to indicate and protect this fact.
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Having read all your arguments I discover that you send mixed messages:
Here you state that an author creates a product that he should be rewarded for: I totally agree.
But why should an author be rewarded multiple times just because I prefer another transport medium: e-book, paperback, large print, hard-cover .... When I switch from paperback to hard-cover the author has not added a single letter to his story, however the publisher has added some additional value and has additional costs. The publisher has to pay for paper the printer and the DTP-er to create another physical format. Therefore for each physical product has to be paid for, because someone has had costs to produce and distribute that physical product.
However the cost of a physical book including the printing, distribution and royalties are a mere fraction of the sales price. The margin (+800%) is used for keeping a title in stock, distribution fees (bookstore has a margin of 40%) and compensate for the many and many failing titles.
As Apple transformed the illigal mp3 market with a immense accessable library with standard price well below the price of a physical CD with the iTunes store, I dare the book publishers to do the same. Give me access to an e-book for $3 immediately when a physical book is available and I won't even bother to look for poorly formatted and/or poorly OCR-ed darknet version.
As people are trained that you can borrow as many books as you like for the price of 1 hard-copy book at a library, it is very difficult for people to accept that using "dark-net" books are any different then borrowing from a friend: the author nor the publisher gets any payment.
With your ridgit morals I would like to raise the question: is it right or wrong to lend/borrow a p-book, because the author/publisher does not receive any payments? Is it right or wrong to listen to music while at friends place or have a friend bring music to yours?
As a person I have the right to do whatever and wherever I like with something I paid for: with physical products this is accepted. What gives an author/publisher the impression that an movie/mp3/e-book is to be treated differently and control where and how I use there "service/product"?
Give me the option to e-lend a book to a friend (like ClevNet) and the option to use MY personal e-bookon any device I prefer and I would be more than happy to pay for an e-book the same price as for the physical version. As this is restricted give me a HUGE discount and just charge for the and the royalties an author would normally get + some reasonable margin (10%??)