Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Is that $106 for a limited time period, or one with a limited number of loans, or is it an "eternal" licence? If it's the latter, it's probably justified by the fact that library users (if my own library is anything to go by) tend to be rather hard on books, and a popular paper book will have to be replaced at relatively frequent intervals, particularly if it's a paperback. Ebooks do not degrade.
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Yeah, for
those books, it might
cost roughly the same. But you cannot go from "will cost roughly the same" to "is justified," for the age-old Humean reason, and because book salesmen, just like ordinary people (I will for the moment ignore the question whether people who do not consider themselves
ordinary have such a right), do not have a "right to constant revenues".
Secondly, for all books that are not "popular" -- and I am guessing this is true for the majority, but you can probably substantiate this empirically -- this line of "reasoning" does not hold water at all, and it's just another
post hoc "justification" for price gouging.