Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I think personally that it's printers and physical bookstores who are "threatened" by digital distribution. I honestly don't see the role of the publisher as being too much different in the digital age - books will still need editing, publicising, etc. What part of the publisher's role do you see as being different in digital rather than paper distribution?
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While I am fuzzy in my "future view", I have noticed that the internet itself is pretty good at generating "buzz" for content. So the publicizing role will conceivably take a backseat. Distribution mechanisms will change (costs there will likely drop to near-zero). They may be a role for the internet in distributed proofreading and editing. All in all I think they will have to do less and incur less costs. Will they pass on these savings to consumers?
To come back shortly to broken systems, what do you think of companies like Disney who take most of their stories FROM the public domain and then turn around and try to make sure their work won't end up there anytime soon, preferably never? What of the fact that they are partly succeeding (copyright extensions)?