Originally Posted by Elfwreck
The newspaper industry shows that what newspapers thought was their main commodity--investigative reporting, presumably well-researched and well-written--was not what people wanted to read.
Are you proposing that bloggers should be unable to offer their writings for free? Because that's what's killing newspapers. How much do you think bloggers should be required to charge?
*looks at Livejournal*
*looks at Dreamwidth*
*looks at Facebook*
*looks at Twitter*
*looks at fanfiction.net*
*looks at archiveofourown.org*
Somehow, I don't think there's any shortage of people on tight budgets who will find time & energy to write, nor any shortage of people who want to read what they write.
My mistake. You're proposing that authors be forced to charge for books that they want to give away. (How extensive is that? Do they have to charge their family members? Their coworkers? Are they allowed to use coupons?)
Government laws dealing with unclaimed assets are a *mess* when applied to copyright. There is no "copyright auction" to get rid of the huge number of orphaned works currently in existence, and no easy way to track down potentially dozens of copyright owners a few generations after the author's death. (Multiply by number of creators; movies can have hundreds of claimants: scriptwriter's heirs, original-book-author's heirs, composer's heirs, recording studio's heirs...)
You haven't offered any evidence to support these conclusions, just a vague sense of dread. Yes, newspapers and magazines are having big problems--but authors, as a class, are not. Some types of publications are not doing well in the face of technological advances, but there is no indication at all that authors are less likely to find payment for their craft.
I cannot think of any industry that *requires* payments for goods or services if the owner wants to give them out for free. If you have examples, please elaborate.
I know of several industries that have minimum-prices for the marketplace--but none that disallow gifts. Several that require licensing and quality standards, thus strongly discouraging gifts, but again, nothing that requires a payment. I could be missing something, though; feel free to give details of industries that don't allow their contents to be given away.
Not, "that require a license etc. to acquire." You can't give certain medicines without a prescription--but that doesn't mean the pharmaceutical company is required to charge for them.
I think you know nothing at all about the reading habits of the poor, nor how inadequate libraries are in rural areas. And it's ridiculous to say "charities can help them"--right now, AUTHORS are helping them. Why should the author have to go through a third party to donate books to the poor? (Or anyone else.) Can't the authors just say "my books are freely available to the poor"--and if so, why can't they say "my books are freely available to anyone who wants them?"
Will there be a limited, defined pool of people who are allowed to receive free books?
If books were fungible, this argument would make sense. However, a library with 10,000 books does not mean every reader can find what they need or want; if that were true, we could shut down all the ebook sites on the web except for Project Gutenberg.
Even if they don't want to be, apparently. How much do you think they should charge for a 5000-word short story? For a 2000-word blog post? For a 50,000-word novel that they admit is rough and they're releasing it free at Smashwords in order to share with a few friends and get feedback from maybe a few extra people?
You want *more* people involved in this money exchange?!? You are *oblivious* to overhead & accounting costs, aren't you?
Which governments mandate a minimum price for all copyrighted entertainment? Or for that matter, for all books?
Why? Nowhere in all of human history, have all would-be authors been able to make a living from writing. (Nevermind that you're not talking about letting them "make a living;" you're talking about requiring that they charge fees... that the public may not decide to pay. If you wanted to guarantee them a living, just set up a tax and pay them all a stipend.)
In the past, fanfic short stories have been priced at $0. How much do you think a 400-word Star Trek ficlet should cost to read? How much should a 150,000-word epic novel cost--given that it's made without the permission of Roddenberry's estate or Paramount Pictures? (Do you advocate the removal of fair use?)
This is an important point. You're claiming a need for a drastic change in economic structures, for which you've provided no evidence (newspapers are suffering; professional authors, as a group, are not), and you want this fix attached to prices. But you don't know *what* prices, not how much, nor who should collect them, nor who should make sure they get collected.
You're claiming to have a solution you can't describe to a problem other people don't perceive. It's no wonder you're not convincing anyone.
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