Quote:
Originally Posted by Barcey
A free market also relies on healthy competition. That is what is missing. Supposed competitors colluding in a spirit of 'coopetition' at the expense of tax payers and the library services. A 400 to 600 percent increase on an equivalent product is a clear market failure when supposed competitors do it at the same time for no valid reason and when the other major competitors withhold products completely.
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It isn't collusion when a gas station raises its prices 9 cents because it sees the guy across the street is charging 10 cents a gallon more for gas.
Copyright law grants an exclusive claim to a particular work of art. In this case, books. Now, we could change copyright law to remove that exclusive claim, but that's probably a different argument for a different day. Right now, if you want to buy a bestseller by a particular author, you have to pay the price set by his/her publisher. No other way to get that book.
But competition doesn't have to come from a specific product, just like you can only get a Big Mac at McDonalds. Competition can come from others offering similar products. So if a large number of independent booksellers were to offer eBooks to libraries at very attractive rates, and the libraries made it a point to emphasize those works - both in print versions and eBooks - no one could say that library patrons were being denied the opportunity to read quality works at a reasonable cost. Just like you can get a hamburger without going near a McDonalds.
I understand you don't like the fact that eBook prices are so high for libraries. I don't, either. But I dislike government monkeying with the free market every time somebody complains that the "market has failed" simply because product X costs too much. I think that in the long run, such intervention in the market will do far more harm than good. Socialism, for instance, "assumes the factory" and then declares that all the value is added by the worker. Works great for a while, but eventually the problem becomes, "Why aren't there any new factories?" Likewise, you're "assuming the book" and then wanting the price to be set below the value set by those who own it. Eventually, there may be few quality authors left to argue over. And it is my own interest in protecting the authors that makes me loathe to involve the government in this issue.