Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
They aren't being forced to subsidize anything, and access to free books isn't the issue here.
Property rights is the real issue. Copyright holders have certain rights granted to them by copyright law. Those rights aren't simply necessary, they are fairly balanced. Now the copyright holders want to take rights away from consumers, things like the right to resell or lend, and create an intrinsically unbalanced system.
I would argue that rights holders are actually looking back to feudal times, when power was concentrated into the hands of a few (e.g. landowners and guilds).
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I didn't realize the copyright holders were taking away rights to resell or lend paperback books? And are these rights or common usage?
Ebooks are a whole new area and can be sold or lent innumerable times. Are you saying this should happen? An author sells a dozen or so books for 9.99 and then it is free for everyone? Without restricting lending/copying of ebooks that is the way it would be.
If you make and sell a lawnmower and ten people use it, it will eventually wear out. Maybe you would prefer to sell one lawnmower per person right away, but you know that unless the lawnmower never breaks or becomes obsolete you will sell more lawnmowers.
Not so with ebooks. They can be duplicated infinitely. Science fiction coming to life as in the stories of replicators. Imagine anyone being able to replicate what you sell/produce. No money no job. Sure you can replicate your own cheeseburgers and diamond rings and wouldn't starve to death, just as authors could get all the books they want.
But where would you live if not a property owner. 90% of the world would be out of a job.
This is what authors and publishers fear for themselves and who can blame them. Sure they can get another job and they will of course, but I would like to see them still writing.
Publishers/authors restrict the amount of times a book can be borrowed from a library or demand that if you have one copy you lend one copy. Seems reasonable to me.
A library buys a book for say 9.99 and lends it 27 times. Chances are that 2+ of that 27 borrowers would have bought the book. Publisher/author is out money.
They may get new readers, encourage reading but if they can't have any hopes of making a living, might as well drive a garbage truck and collect union wages.
Helen