Quote:
Originally Posted by nekokami
If what you're saying is that occasionally giving a copy of an ebook away doesn't hurt the bottom line of an author, I agree. If what you're saying is that nobody should pay for books, because they cost nothing to duplicate, I disagree. Since I'm not sure what you're saying, I don't know if I agree or disagree with you at this point.
My point was that I think people should pay authors for what they read. I'd be willing to accept some other arrangement to ensure that authors are able to eat, however, so long as it doesn't involve distracting them from writing. For example, in the case of Steven Brust, I and some other fans have put together a tshirt website at cafepress: http://cafepress.com/dragaera He also has a paypal donation link on his site. All this is helping, but if he doesn't get paid for his books, I don't think it would be enough. And he doesn't get as much writing done when he's not sure how he's going to pay the monthly bills. |
I'm not saying that nobody should pay for books. What I'm saying is that handing over a copy of a digital file you have is essentially the same as giving a pbook - and yes, I include P2P as a way of passing around the copy.
I expect people will scream that doing it that way will lead to nobody buying books anymore. I don't believe that: the sheer volume of books in existence makes it completely impractical (if nor downright crazy). For most people, the convenience of being able to find what you want when you want it at a reasonable price will be enough for an author to make a sufficient amount of sales.