[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by petrucci

I believe that new book sales are diminished somewhat by the abundance of free downloads.

Book sales have always been competing with royalty-free books--borrowed from friends or libraries, or bought second-hand. It has been a long, long time since anyone bought a new book because they couldn't find something free that was worth reading.

I am not saying that everyone will choose a free book over one that costs money. I believe that some people will choose those books and not buy new ones. I am also aware that free downloads can be used as marketing tools and boost sales. However, there is a limited amount of time that people have to read, and for every free book that they read, there is that much less time to read a new book.

Ah yes, the "webscabs" argument, claiming that free ebooks leads to "the downward spiral that is converting the noble calling of Writer into the life of Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch."

Amateurs were no real competition for professional musicians back in the day. When the emperor wanted to hear music, he made sure that there were professionals on staff.

Emperors (and presidents, and heads of universities holding festivities) still pay for musicians. The issue is whether the factory worker gets live or recorded music when he stops by the pub on the way home from work. And in those situations, amateurs do compete with professionals.

Being able to more widely distribute ones works does not suddenly make the playing field level. It is uneven because the previous works are free, they do not need to support a living person. All musicians can now widely distribute their works through recordings. This has had the effect of devaluing live performance.

On the contrary, it's made live performance the more valued experience. Many bands are happy to distribute their entire repertoire online for free, because it brings bigger crowds to their performances.

Authors, of course, don't have this option. However, authors, unlike musicians, have *always* competed with previously-written works.

The initial evidence is that the ability to publish widely at impulse-buy prices is bringing a lot more authors a living wage, where ten years ago they would not be able to reach as wide an audience.

I am rather confused by the idea that the public domain and free works should somehow be censored in order to support authors that people obviously don't want to pay to read, but maybe would if there were nothing cheaper available. If it's your considered opinion that the public should support new authors, regardless of their skill or popularity, perhaps the various governments should create a subsidy system, rather than removing education and entertainment from availability.