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I missed filling in the *-d note in the above message. Here it is:
*Some publishers have been smart enough to cut out one or more levels of middlemen in their eBook stores, and have arranged better terms with their retailers. So this picture isn't quite correct for the entire industry, just most of it.
Which brings me to my alternate proposal. Why not use the Web for what it's good for (disintermediation, that is) and wipe out the distributors (mostly) and the retailers (to some degree). The need for those levels of the current system (especially the distributors!) is far smaller than the need for the important part of what the publishers do. Cutting out those levels of the distribution chain would free up somewhere between 50% and 75% of the current price of ebooks. Splitting that money between authors, publishers, and consumers would leave all three parties better off, with no need to involve government or tax $$ at all!
Hint: This approach is already being used very successfully by some of the publishers in the eBook business. It works. They make more money. We spend less. Authors get more. What's not to like? Remind me why we needed to drag government into it?
Xenophon
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