Quote:
Originally Posted by starrigger
As an ebook enthusiast, I instinctively share the sentiment about making ebooks more attractive. But...
You can't pretend that a thousand, or a million, legally binding contracts don't exist. And if the Guild did what you suggest, they would be aiding in an increasingly unambiguous violation of those contracts.
I don't think the answer to this question is simple at all.
(Purely as an aside, I'll note that most writers make little to nothing on ebook sales right now, and most don't even get audiobook contracts. So when people start talking about "greedy" authors, as some have at times during this discussion, I can only shake my head. The vast majority of writers can't earn anything even remotely approaching a living wage from their books, so there is an ongoing tension between trying to use new technologies to promote sales of their work and remaining vigilant to avoid being screwed out of their share of the money that does get earned.)
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I expect that there were legally binding contracts around the rights for large print edition books. Are they going to go after Amazon because the Kindle allows you to change the font size?
I'm not suggesting it's easy to fix but if mistakes are made you don't try to change the world to accommodate the mistakes. You have to recognize that it was a mistake and stop doing it. It's like regional restrictions on ebook sales. It makes no sense when selling electronic media, it can't be enforced and does nothing but feed lawyers. Sooner or later you have to stop trying to fight it and sooner is easier then later. I just don't understand why he's so vocally fighting this losing battle.
I sure didn't intend to give the impression that I thought author's were greedy and I personally think they don't get sufficient compensation proportional to the total sales.