Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyb
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Before, all that could be owned was th actual material the print consisted of, after you could own the idea (which lead to the introduction of the large scale leagl constructions). This is something that makes your Gutenberg comparisons really off topic.
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Hmm....
Quote:
Originally Posted by knc1
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We should be reading about how Gutenberg stole the concept of movable type from the Chinese, cast the type in metal rather than ceramic and then mechanized the press.
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I did write:
"stole the concept" which does imply that somebody else owned the concept.
My bad.
I should have been less figurative and more exact.
Of course, concepts could not be owned, either then or now.
And the implementation of movable type in metal rather than ceramic is even now sufficient to be a "new" implementation of the concept.
So I have to agree, I wrote in haste and did not convey my point well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
Of course. When Gutenberg kickstarted the mass-production of books, the literati were furious at the destruction of culture that was sure to follow, once the unwashed masses got ahold of the suddenly-cheap books and decided they were worthy of the Art of Reading as well...
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A better description than what I wrote myself.
And one that spans hundreds of years, not something that happened overnight.
It was notimp that introduced comparisons with Gutenberg.
Now, hundreds of years later, hindsight tells us his work marked a revolution in the publishing industry.
Also now, with less than a decade of hindsight, we can't really say if Jeff Bezos' practices have marked a revolution in the publishing industry.
Another place where I failed to convey my point well . . . .
In-between those two events (one a revolution, the other as yet undecided) was the introduction of electronic phototypesetting that (eventually) brought an end to the movable type era.
That change took place within our own lifetimes.
(Well, at least for some of us. Within our parents or grandparents in some other cases.
Such an opportunity here, to have a debate of opinions among at least three generations.)
Was electronic phototypesetting also a "publishing revolution" ?
Probably, although we could use a bit more hindsight to judge that one also.
And one more point I was not clear on -
There are (possibly) three revolutions in the (printing or) publishing industry that could be described as:
"An end to the (publishing) world (as we know it)."
Those three "End of the World" events:
Gutenberg - For certain.
Electronic typesetting - A definite maybe.
Amazon's vertically integrated monopoly - A slim "maybe", but too soon to say.