Quote:
Originally Posted by PKFFW
Giggleton,
You seem to be advocating a Star Trek like Utopian where everyones material needs are catered for and thus everyone can do whatever they want to do and not worry about payment. Thus, writers will write, singers sing, engineers build new machines etc etc. As a Star Trek fan myself I would love to see this Utopian society come into existence.
However, at present this society does not exist.
So if you yourself feel that you have the right to read any book you like for free and you have actually read many books without compensating the author, why do you keep suggesting that if everyone got free access to all books they would all be willing to pay the author? Are others more altruistic than yourself? Are they simply less greedy? What makes the rest of society so different to yourself that they would seemingly be willing to pay when you, the advocate of free access to all knowledge, are not willing to pay?
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Might as well start trying to create it now.
Well I have paid for a few books in the past year. Maybe ten, and I read a few hundred. I think if I had to pay retail price for all those books I read I wouldn't have been able to buy food or pay the rent. Meaning I CANNOT pay for all the books I have read, but I would have if I could. I pay about 50 dollars a month for internet access, it has always seemed to me that a large portion of this access fee should be going to the content creators rather than to the telcom executives. It is easy to imagine the negative reactions of some that would surround such a scheme, but change is always hard I suppose.
Members of a society must depend on one another, that is the nature of society. It is in everyone's best interest for everyone to read everything that they wish to. Just my two cents.
Lately I have also been thinking of the psychology of payment. I disregard the idea that we have an aversion to placing a worth on something when we do not have to pay for it. I feel the opposite in fact. I find myself paying for art that is available for free. I haven't spent much to be sure, but there is the definite feeling of knowing what you are paying for when you are able to listen to, read, or watch a text in its entirety before paying.
The payment is usually sent directly to the creator so there is more of a connection there as well.