Quote:
Originally Posted by ProDigit
Though that may be true too; if I publish a book in large letter format, the customer is allowed to buy one, and convert it to a smaller format as he likes, just as you may buy a car and paint it in another color.
but noone can demand me to start making these books in smaller lettertype. And as long as I am the copyright holder, you can not publish smaller print versions for sale legally, apart from your own purchased copy; or if you stay within the licence or copyright agreement.
|
There's no right for someone else to exploit the market. (Erm. Except for cases like parody.)
There may be a right for someone else to offer free versions that the copyright holder refuses to distribute. This includes versions like braille editions/audiobooks for the blind; it may come to include ebook versions of textbooks, especially for K-12 state-established schoolbooks, if the publisher declares a lack of interest in supporting ebooks.
It may include free digital copies of any book that don't have an ebook version, if a coherent argument can be made that they don't impact print sales. (I'll admit that's more than a bit of a stretch. But then, the RIAA wants me to believe that downloading a 3-minute MP3 of a song I own on vinyl is a $20,000 crime; my brain-stretching in regards to copyright is already well practiced.)
Publishers don't have to provide versions, or derivatives, they don't want to support... but that's not the same as a right to
prevent those versions.