@pdurrant: read the next paragraph for the summary.
It is my contention that, in most cases, an abundance of free fiction will cause similar books that are not free to lose value. It has been argued that this cannot be the case as books are not fungible. Although we can certainly distinguish one book from another, this does not mean that books are incomparable from the perspective of a consumer. I believe that although the titles of fiction may be unique, they are valued by a consumer on the basis of their potential to entertain him. Several books can be equal in this regard, and thus the unique nature of the titles does not prevent the degredation of price.
In a previous post, QuantumIguana argued that readers of classics would be more likely to read new books of higher quality. This suggests that he believes that there is a similarity between the classics and new books of high quality. Such similarities are a form of comparison. The fact that such comparisons exist undermines the position that books are unique, as something that is unique is by its nature incomparable. Moreover it suggests that such similarities are important in the choice of reading material.
If books were truly unique we would only seek out particular titles. We all know that this is not the case. For example, readers seek out works by a particular author in the hopes that they are similar to other works she has written. Readers may also consider the brand/series. A given series may be written by several different authors. Take for example a T.V. show such as House. Different episodes are written by different writers. However, as a consumer of T.V. programs we can make a determination to watch the program based on its brand, and not on the author of a particular episode. A similar situation arises with books. There are customers who will buy the latest Star Wars novel regardless of its author. Another example would be the James Bond franchise. This is not to say that some consumers will not take into account the author of a book when considering purchasing it. My point here is that works by different authors may in some circumstances be considered roughly equal from the perspective of consumption.
There are instances in which we will purchase works even when we know nothing of the brand or the author. An example would be purchasing Analog, or a collection of works by different authors. Such choices are usually driven by the genera of the book. I believe that in almost all circumstances readers take into account genera when purchasing a book. An exception to this is choosing a book based on its author, even when his works span different genera.
I mentioned many different aspects of books. They all relate in one way or another to a person's enjoyment of a work. This I believe is the fundamental basis for the value that a person places on a book. Different people find different experiences enjoyable. Some may want a to read romance while others may want pulp fiction. If their desire is met, then they will be satisfied. In most cases a particular book is not required to satisfy such a desire. Any one of many hundreds of books could fit the bill. I think that the real commodity here is a reader's time, which can be filled to his satisfaction with a wide variety of books. If a person's entertainment quota is met by free books, then there is one fewer paying consumer of books. If few enough people are paying for books then their value will decrease.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
On the order of 200,000 new books are published in the United States every year (and I am not even sure if that includes indie titles). Even if copyright was shortened to the original term of 14 years, that means 2.8 million books would be in copyright at any given time. The consumer is already overwhelmed by more books in any given year than they could possibly read in a life time. All this means is a large public domain is unlikely to significantly impact the basic fact that too many books are published to sustain more than a tiny percentage of authors as their sole source of income.
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To a large extent I agree. However, if many of those books were free, then an even smaller percentage of authors could make a living from their craft.