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Originally Posted by Giggleton
Unless of course the Commissar was the combined consciousness of everyone participating in the collective...
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I've had a number of times when I've been with a group of people, and no one can agree on where to go for dinner. You wind up with picking a place that no one hates, but that no one loves.
This Commissar would be the same thing. A "collective consciousness" picking out books is a nightmare. It wouldn't pick out life-changing books, it would be picking out forgettable best sellers. Science fiction makes up about 10% of the book market. A collective consciousness wouldn't pick a genre that made about 10% of the market, people who wanted science fiction would be outvoted.
We already have the best system for getting people the books they want. Letting each person buy the kinds of books they want ensures that these books get written. A commissar ensures that someone else tells you what you can read.
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One of the best things about the internet is that we no longer have to wait to for information, getting in line so that you may access an ebook? That is fuckin ridiculous isn't it??
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The speed of delivery has nothing to do with making all books free.
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And there are many who do believe in a system of perpetual copyright.
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Yes there. But this is a red herring that you are using. We aren't talking about perpetual copyright. I'm as opposed to perpetual copyright as anyone, but that is another subject.
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Can the network support 10 billion people logged on simultaneously? What if 10 billion people wanted to access the same text at the same time? Should they all have to pay the same price??? What if the US government decides to give away ereaders to children upon entering the first grade? Should we restrict these new readers reading to texts that they are only capable of purchasing?? Why not simply give them access to the entire library and raise their parent's property taxes a bit?
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The government could give e-readers to all first graders. That's a policy that government could adopt. It would have no bearing whatsoever on whether all books should be given away for free. We've already established that your Commissar idea is fatally flawed.
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Mass adoption of ereaders combined with easy sharing of texts would lead to the discovery of new literature.
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No, it wouldn't. The new literature WOULD NOT EXIST if you had your way. Tell me this: Why don't you WANT the literature that is already available for free?