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Old 05-04-2012, 05:56 PM   #281
Elfwreck
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Quote:
Originally Posted by petrucci View Post
ANY loss of income. What if NO contemporary authors could earn a living from writing?
Obviously, that would be Very Very Bad; you just haven't provided any compelling evidence that it's remotely likely to happen.
Why would authors suddenly not be able to make a living writing, when currently, with exactly the free-ebooks-everywhere system you're trying to prevent, they're more able to make a living than they have ever been?

Nobody here is saying "it's fine for authors not to get paid!" We're saying that, as things stand, some authors get paid, and we expect some authors to get paid in the future, and while some individual awesome authors will indeed fail to get the support they need and we will all miss out on some great works thereby, that isn't worth changing the entire economy of arts and literature. Certainly not by mandating a price for things authors would like to give away for free.

If you provided any numbers to support your claim that authors are less likely to make money at their craft in the future, people might be convinced. If you outlined a solution plan that was obviously beneficial to authors, they might see how that plan fixes the problem you perceive.

(A plan of "all authors will charge money for all their published works" is not beneficial; it doesn't get anyone to *buy* those works. Especially when you haven't been clear about which writers would need to charge, and which would be considered non-professional.)
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