Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyR
Why should companies be forced to subsidize consumers of mass media?
Should Hollywood provide free or low cost movie screenings? Oh wait, they already do, since most libraries carry lots of the latest movies on DVD.
So maybe a better analogy, should the media companies be forced to provide low cost/free video streaming to library patrons? It's no different than what people seem to want from the book publishers...
I understand the appeal of wanting free stuff (even if a lot is being paid for by property taxes) but at the same time, it only hurts in the long run. If authors aren't making money off the books they write, they won't write books.
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Unless I'm mistaken, the library buys the books, the DVDs, and the ebooks. I don't think there is a general demand that the publishers donate the ebooks or the infrastructure to distribute them.
The problem is not that the publishers (and via them the authors) are not getting paid, it is that they want to get paid every time anyone looks at the thing.