Quote:
Originally Posted by the.Mtn.Man
Everybody is missing the forest for the trees here. The real problem is that publishers are still trying to enforce rules of scarcity where it makes zero sense. Talking about a digital file being "used" and therefore somehow less valuable is completely illogical. The first publisher to come up with a common sense business model that doesn't treat digital books like a physical commodity is going to make a fortune and leave everybody else in the dust.
|
Not at all. We are neither missing anything nor is it senseless or illogical. We quite simply acknowledge the reality of our system of economic need and incentive. It's the best system anyone has come up with so far, though you are free to try to make a better one.
In our system scarcity is merely one factor we use to determine value, not the only one. In fact we've made laws and treaties specifically to help establish and protect the value of intangibles like intellectual property. Calling the transfer of a license 'selling a used eBook' makes perfect sense, both as a convenient analog to used pbook sales, as as a literal reference to selling your licensed rights after you have used them.